Everbright-IDG fund commits $72m to China e-commerce app

The commitment came from Everbright-IDG Industrial Fund, which was launched in late June and backs companies in areas such as financial technology, internet finance, entertainment, education, consumer and high-end manufacturing. According to a CEL release, this is the largest investment of 2016 in a female-focused e-commerce vertical.

Formerly known as Ymall, Daling caters to female consumers aged 30 or below and currently has a user base of more than 16 million. Of these users, 80% are middle-class women in second- and third-tier cities. Category coverage includes high-end international and domestic beauty products, snack and lifestyle products, as well as fashion accessories.

The company is investing in brand-building efforts, enlisting singer Lu Han - best known as a former member of Korean-Chinese boy group Exo - as an endorser, shareholder and company director.

Daling received initial funding from IDG in 2014, according to AVCJ Research. This was followed by a second round later the same year, also of undisclosed size, provided by Capital Today Group, IDG and Sequoia Capital. In August of this year, the company secured a RMB300 million Series C round from the same group of investors.

The Industrial Fund was initiated as a co-GP partnership in May. Within a month, a first close of RMB10 billion had been achieved - with RMB2 billion contributed by a subsidiary of CEL and RMB8 billion from other institutional investors - and all that capital was deployed after five months. A final close of RMB25-30 billion is expected in the first half of 2017.

The CEL release said that more than RMB15 billion has now been committed across 10 deals. These include a RMB2 billion investment in China UnionPay Merchant Services (UMS), a third-party payment provider controlled by the People's Bank of China, and the acquisition of Shanghai Film Art Academy for an undisclosed sum.

In addition to its partnership with IDG, CEL is in negotiation with Sequoia Capital to set up an array of co-managed M&A industry-focused funds with a view to diversifying its deal-sourcing channels.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Technology
• Consumer
• IDG Capital Partners
• China Everbright
• Venture
• Growth capital
• TMT
• China