Chinese second-hand goods trading platform raises $65m

Hillhouse Capital, IDG Capital, GGV Capital, Matrix Partners China, and ZhenFund also took part in the round. ZhenFund provided angel funding to Xiangwushuo and this was reportedly followed by three quickfire rounds within six months: GGV and Matrix were responsible for the Series A, IDG led the Series A-plus, and then Hillhouse anchored an initial Series B round in May.

Launched as a mini app within Tencent Holdings’ WeChat platform, Xiangwushuo enables users to exchange items free of charge. It operates under a community credit system, whereby activity – sharing and gifting goods – is rewarded with “little red flowers.” These serve as currency when a user wants to acquire items that others have made available on the platform.

As of July, the company had more than 20 million users, including over one million daily active users, according to a GGV statement. Shuo Sun, Xiangwushuo’s founder and CEO, came up with the idea in part from his own experiences as a parent, trading second-hand baby products. This category still accounts for a lot of activity on the platform, most users of which are women.

The company says on its website that it cooperates with the likes of consumer appliances brands TCL, Supor, Povos, Ecovacs, and Siemens, as well as Mobike, L’Oreal, and Huazhu Hotels Group. Some groups pay fees to post product information on the platform, using it as a form of advertising.

Xiangwushuo also has an active societal agenda, accumulating unwanted books from users and donating them to libraries established by corporate partners.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Technology
• Consumer
• China
• TMT
• Sequoia Capital
• GGV Capital
• Hillhouse Capital Management
• Matrix Partners
• ZhenFund
• IDG Capital Partners