China online tourism operator Joyu Culture raises $150m

The round is led by Chinese conglomerate Nanjing Fullshare Industrial Holding, which committed RMB700 million. Fullshare's interests span construction engineering, real estate and healthcare.

Joyu Culture operates online and offline travel businesses under six subsidiaries covering travel advisory, online travel booking, travel agency marketing solutions, hotels and resort operations, and tourism investment. Lvmama.com, which is the group's core business, was launched in 2008. It is a B2C self-service platform that enables tourists to find out information on trips and make bookings.

Lvmama.com raised its first round of institutional VC funding in 2009. Sequoia Capital China and CDH Investments then committed $15 million to the company in 2010, while South River Capital led a Series C round in 2011. In 2014, it received a RMB300 million Series D round led by GX Capital, followed by a RMB500 million Series E round from Jinjiang International Group last year.

The group listed on the New Third Board last year. Shortly after that, it raised RMB460 million from Huace Media and Smallville Capital, a China-based fund-of-funds that represents family offices. In turn, Joyu channeled RMB350 million of the proceeds into Lvmama.com to scale up the business.

Following the new round, Joyu will leverage Fullshare's existing networks and resources to deepen its partnerships with different travel organizations, providing a better services tourists, it said in a release.

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