Chinese karaoke equipment supplier gets $29m Series B
Thunder Stone Technology, a Chinese karaoke equipment producer, has received nearly RMB200 million ($29 million) in Series B funding led by China Minsheng Investment Group.
Morningside Ventures and a strategic investor with ties to smart phone maker Xiaomi also took part. The proceeds have been earmarked for channel expansion, product development, building out cloud-based services, and making additions to the music library.
Thunder Stone already claims to have a 60% share of China’s high-end KTV market, servicing 40,000 karaoke parlor chains. It also has cooperation agreements with over 450 record labels globally and music libraries containing nearly 600,000 tracks. The company makes KTV systems for commercial and home use. It collaborates with Xiaomi in the latter area, having developed a karaoke app for Xiaomi TVs.
Last year, Thunder Stone launched Wow House, a line of mini KTV booths that are typically located in shopping malls and used by individuals who can share their performances through social media. Several start-ups that focus exclusively on this market segment have received VC funding, including Xingtang MiniKTV, which raised $15 million across angel and Series A rounds last year.
Founded in 1996, Thunder Stone has tracked technological innovation, moving from set-top boxes to apps to cloud-based services. The company also integrated social networks like Tencent Holdings-owned WeChat into its systems and started supporting digital payment services, including WeChat Pay and Alibaba Group’s Alipay.
“Thunder Stone has been focusing on interactive music entertainment for many years, leading the development of the KTV industry, introducing internet-driven ideas and cloud services to it, and driving a comprehensive industry upgrade,” said Lei Jun, co-founder of Xiaomi and honorary chairman of Thunder Stone. He added that KTV is now undergoing change – in living rooms as well as karaoke parlors – and this is making the competitive environment more challenging.
China Renaissance served as the exclusive financial advisor for Series B round.
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