Warburg Pincus leads $100m Series D for China’s Yunniao
Warburg Pincus has led a $100 million Series D round for Yunniao Distribution, a platform for sourcing intercity courier services in China, followed by existing investors Matrix Partners and GSR Ventures.
The private equity firm also led Yunniao’s $100 million Series C round in January of last year, alongside Sequoia Capital, Matrix and GSR.
Founded in November 2014, Yunniao connects customers with drivers and couriers. It targets the enterprise market, providing regional and same-city delivery services to chain stores, distributors, brands and manufacturers. Corporates place their orders on the Yunniao platform, together with their specific vehicle requirements, and third-party providers then bid for the jobs.
The service now covers 13 first-tier cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, serving about 3,000 clients in different industry supply chains. It claims to facilitate RMB7 million ($1 million) worth of delivery transactions every day, with more than 300,000 drivers registered on the platform.
Yunniao completed a $10 million Series A round in January of 2015 from Matrix, GSR and Shanda Capital. Six months later, Sequoia led a further round, with existing investors also re-upping.
The Series D round will be used for technology development, service quality improvement, and geographic expansion, with Yunniao targeting a presence in 30 cities by the end of this year, according to a statement. It also plans to form strategic partnerships with other logistic companies.
Warburg Pincus has made a string of investments in China's logistics sector, with meeting the fast-growing needs of e-commerce companies the unifying theme. In 2014, the GP re-upped in China ANE Logistics and then in 2015 it participated in a funding round for ZTO Express, one of Alibaba Group's logistics partners. The firm raised $1.4 billion in an US IPO in 2016.
Late last year, Warburg Pincus closed its first dedicated China fund – which invests alongside the firm’s $13.4 billion global flagship vehicle in China deals – at the hard cap of $2 billion.
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