China’s UCloud secures $140m Series D

Founded in 2012 by three former Tencent Holdings executives, UCloud offers cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) - such as cloud storage and data analytics - to online gaming, e-commerce operators and mobile internet developers. 

The company has already built 17 data centers in Asia – including China – Europe and the US, and has 11 customer service centers in major Chinese cities. It provides services to more than 50,000 corporate clients, UCloud CEO Xinhua Ji told in local press conference.

UCloud previously raised a $10 million Series A round from DCM and Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI) in 2013. Legend Capital and BAI then led a $50 million Series B round for the company in 2014. The following year, UCloud completed a $100 million Series C round led by Legend Capital, and also featuring VMS Investment Fund, DCM, BAI and GX Capital.

The company removed its variable interest entity (VIE) structure last year to become a domestically-funded business, in preparation for an onshore listing. It will use the new capital to develop big data and artificial intelligence technology.

The cloud computing market is still relatively nascent in China. Several VC investors are backing independent players providing cloud services to traditional local enterprises. According to the Ministry of Industry & Information Technology, China’s cloud services industry will be worth RMB600 billion by the end of this year. The figure is expected to reach RMB800 billion in 2018.

Suzhou-based Oriza has RMB41.1 billion in assets under management across private equity – including fund-of-funds, venture capital and buyout funds – and debt financing. CICC Alpha manages several funds targeting at internet, consumer, healthcare, media, manufacturing 4.0 and cleantech opportunities from angel to pre-IPO rounds.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Greater China
• Technology
• Expansion
• China
• TMT
• CICC
• Growth capital