Alibaba invests $717m in China PE-backed rural e-commerce site

The two parties will collaborate in the areas of supply chain, storage, and logistics, as well as technology to provide a variety of services for the rural market, a statement said. These include brand promotion, online ordering systems, cloud platforms, and new retail operations, with a view to upgrading the overall e-commerce infrastructure in rural areas.

Nanjing-headquartered Huitongda was established in 2010 by parent company Jiangsu Five Star Appliances. It started as a home appliances e-commerce platform, selling household items such as refrigerators and washing machines.

The company now works with about 80,000 mom-and-pop stores in towns and villages across 18 provinces, serving nearly 200 million rural customers. Over the years, it has expanded into other retail categories including farming equipment and electric vehicles, as well as to provide rural finance.  

Huitongda raised a RMB1 billion in a Series A round across two tranches of funding in 2015. That includes an initial RMB500 million round from New Horizon Capital, Addor Capital, Shunwei Capital and China Renaissance’s Huaxing Growth Capital, and another RMB500 million extended round from Coastal Capital and Hua insurance.

It then received RMB600 million in a Series B round from China Merchants Bank in 2016, and a RMB500 million Series C round last year, led by US-China Green Fund.

Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms now host about one million merchants that focus on rural areas, facilitating more than RMB100 billion annual sales of agricultural products. Last year, the e-commerce giant created a RMB10 billion poverty relief fund to focus on education and rural healthcare. 

Several rural e-commerce platforms previously received funding from PE investors, including Taoshihui, Maihuolang Information Technology, and Cloud Farm.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Consumer
• Technology
• Expansion
• China
• Alibaba Group
• TMT
• Growth capital