Chinese hotel marketing platform receives $42m

Sequoia Capital China led the first tranche, with re-ups from IDG Capital, Shunwei Capital and Lightspeed China Partners; Vision Plus Capital led the second tranche with participation from Sequoia; and an investment fund controlled by China CYTS Tours led the third.

The capital will mainly go towards technology improvements and business expansion. Four-year-old Zhiketong operates a public account on Tencent Holdings' WeChat platform that helps hotels secure bookings from new and existing customers. Payments can be made through WeChat Pay.

The company, which has raised RMB480 million to date, claims to work with 80% of China’s five-star hotels. The combined monthly transaction volume for Zhiketong's hotel partners is more than RMB400 million. Those that have been working with the company for more than one year generate 40% of their WeChat direct sales revenue from return customers.

According to Lightspeed, Zhiketong takes 3% of the gross merchandise volume (GMV) from hotel partners as a fee. It said this business model is accepted by the hotel industry because it helps accelerate growth.

A similar company called Honey Guide - or Xiangminiao - was acquired by Weimob in May 2018. Weimob, which is backed by Tencent, GIC Private, and several VC investors, listed in Hong Kong in January. It helps small businesses create an end-to-end online retail presence, primarily through WeChat.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Consumer
• Early-stage
• Technology
• Sequoia Capital
• IDG capital
• Shunwei Capital Partners
• Lightspeed Venture Partners
• Vision Plus Capital
• TMT
• China