China personal lending platform Yongqianbao raises $68m
Yongqianbao, a Chinese mobile app that provides personal loan services, has raised a RMB466 million ($68 million) Series C round co-led by Golden Brick Capital and CICC Alpha.
CASH Capital, the VC arm the state-owned Chinese Academy of Sciences Holdings (CASH Holdings), Source Code Capital, Sinovation Ventures and GX Capital also participated in the round.
Operated by Beijing Zhirong Shidai Technology, Yongqianbao was founded in 2013 by former employees from Baidu, Tencent, Ganji and Minsheng Bank.
The company has formed partnerships with Chinese financial institutions to provide small loans – from RMB500 to RMB5,000 per transaction – to individuals for periods of 7-30 days. Once an online application is completed, the money is transferred to the borrower's bank account within 30 minutes. They can make repayments through Alipay, WeChat or online commercial bank platforms.
As part of the fundraising, Yongqianbao also announced that it will rebrand to Zhirong Group and focus on development in three areas: a mobile financial app to provide different loan products to users; an internal risk control system based on artificial intelligence technology; and a credit management platform to oversee the full online lending process.
Morningside Venture Capital provides a Series A round of funding for the company in 2014, while Sinovation and Source Code invested in a $10 million Series B round in 2015. Yongqianbao raised an extended Series B round of $23 million last year from investors including Beijing Hongtai Tongchuang Investment, GX Capital, Morningside, Sinovation, Source Code and online credit card management platform U51.com.
Based in Hong Kong, the GP focuses on investments in technology, media and telecom, energy and natural resources, and has about $3 billion in assets under management. It was involved in the take-private of Chinese internet security software provider Qihoo 360 Technology and the acquisition of the web browser business of Norway's Opera Software.
CICC Alpha is a direct investment arm of China International Capital Corporation (CICC).
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