VC-backed Chinese online brokerage files for US listing
Chinese online brokerage Tiger Brokers, which is backed by smart phone maker Xiaomi and a number of venture capital firms, has filed for an IPO in the US.
The size and the pricing of the offering have yet to be announced, but Bloomberg previously reported the company was looking to raise up to $200 million.
Founded in 2014, Tiger provides online brokerage services for Chinese investors active on the domestic, US and Hong Kong exchanges. It also offers real-time quotations, investment performance analysis, and short-selling facilities. Revenue primarily comes from the commission fees charged to customers for transaction processing.
Revenue reached $5.5 million and $16.9 million in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Commissions accounted for 88.6% with financing services contributing around 11% in 2017. Net losses for the same two years came to $10.8 million and $7.9 million, according to a prospectus. As of September 2018, Tiger had 1.4 million registered users and 456,400 active accounts with a total balance of $2.6 billion. Daily trading volume for the three months ended September 2018 was $530.9 million.
The company's founder, Tianhua Wu, is the largest shareholder with an 18.9% stake. Due to the dual-class share structure, his voting power is 70%. Xiaomi has a 14.1% equity interest while American online brokerage Interactive Brokers Group has 7.7%.
The company has raised $134.5 million across six rounds or private funding since inception. Its investors include China Renaissance K2 Ventures, ZhenFund, Greenwoods Investment, China Growth Capital and Oceanpine Capital. Xiaomi led the Series A round in 2015 together with Greenwoods.
One of Tiger's biggest rivals is Tencent-backed Futu Securities International, which filed for a listing in the US in January. Futu is said to be seeking up to $500 million at a valuation of $2.5 billion. The company raised $215 million across three funding rounds between 2014 to 2017 with contributions from Tencent, Matrix Partners China, and Sequoia Capital China.
More on Greater China
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.