China online fabrics trader Baibu raises $100m

Existing investors Yunqi Capital, Chengwei Capital, Source Code Capital and Bull Capital Partners, all of which backed the first tranche of the Series C in August that raised $30 million, also took part. 

The proceeds will go towards scaling up the business and improving the efficiency of its supply chains, as well as expanding the company's footprint to more than 10 textile manufacturing centers in southwestern and northern Chinese provinces, according to a statement.

"The building and management of supply chains in China's textile and fabrics industry are still at their infancy and the internet could play a very important role in the transformation of the sector," said Pengfei Wang, managing director of Tiger Global."With the clear positioning and the leading market share Baibu has, we believe it will be a good example of how the use of modern technology could upgrade a traditional industry."

Baibu was founded in 2014 by a team whose members previously worked for the likes of Alibaba Group, Meituan-Dianping, and Vipshop, as well as leading groups in the textiles industry. The company, which is already in profit, works with more than 4,000 top-tier suppliers and 100,000 garment manufacturers, according to a Source Code statement.

Baibu received angel funding and a Series A round from Source Code in 2015 and 2016, respectively. This was followed by an initial Series B worth over $10 million and led by Chengwei.

China’s textile industry was worth over RMB10 trillion ($1.46 trillion) in 2015, with nearly 5,000 fabric suppliers producing about three million types of fabric, according to China's National Textile and Apparel Council. The upstream and downstream ends of the supply chain are scattered, so it takes from 2-3 days to 1-2 weeks for cloth to reach manufacturers. At the same time, the multi-level distribution network means cumulative price increases of 30-60% while product quality can be inconsistent.

Investment interest in Chinese B2B platforms that manage to combine modern technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data to traditional industries has been on the rise. In November,
Zhangshangfucai, a Chinese online B2B platform for sourcing home decoration materials, raised $8 million in Series A funding led by ZhenFund. Meanwhile, liquor trading platform Yijiupi closed a $200 million Series D in September from Tencent Holdings and Meituan-Dianping.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Consumer
• Expansion
• TMT
• China
• manufacturing
• Source Code Capital
• Chengwei Ventures Shanghai
• Tiger Global Management
• Bull Capital