PE-backed Chinese fashion platform Mogujie files for US IPO
Chinese online shopping and social networking business Mogujie has filed to list in the US. The company's investors include Tencent Holdings, Trustbridge Partners, and Hillhouse Capital.
Founded in 2011 by Alibaba alumnus Qi Chen, Mogjujie has adopted a Pinterest-style model, allowing users to share their shopping experiences through links to products provided by brand partners and third-party merchants. Many of the latter are from Taobao. Merchants pay commissions to Mogujie based on traffic generated and fees for specific promotions.
Mogujie users are primarily young Chinese females aged 15 to 30 who access the platform via mobile app and a mini app embedded within Tencent's Wechat service. The company accumulated an average of 62.2 million mobile monthly active users for the 12 months ended September, according to its prospectus.
Mogujie has received strong PE and VC support since inception. Bertelsmann Asia and Ameba Capital provided seed funding in 2011. This was followed by two rounds from Qiming Venture Partners and IDG Capital the following year. In 2015, Hopu Investments and Trustbridge led a $200 million round at a reported valuation of $1 billion. A further $200 million came through a Series D led by Ping An Ventures, with the round valued Mogujie at around $2 billion.
The company then acquired its biggest rival, Meilishuo, in 2016 through a share swap that valued the combined entity at more than $3 billion.
Tencent is the largest shareholder with an 18% stake, followed by Mogujie CEO Qi Chen with 11.9%. Hillhouse Capital owns 10.2%, Trustbridge and BAI each have 8.2%, while Ping An, Qiming Venture and Sequoia have 6.3%, 6.3% and 4.6%, respectively.
The company posted revenue of RMB973.2 million (US$141.7 million) for the year ended in March 2018, down from RMB1.1 billion a year earlier. Over the same period, Mogujie's net loss narrowed from RMB939.1 million to RMB558.1 million.
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