Trustbridge backs Chinese storytelling start-up
Chinese children’s storytelling start-up Kaishu Story, also known as Kaishu Jianggushi, has raised $66 million in an extended tranche of Series C round led by Trustbridge Partners.
Other investors include Temasek Holdings and Loyal Valley Capital. It follows a $50 million Series C round last July led by Baidu with the support of two leading US-listed Chinese educational groups, New Oriental Education & Technology Group and TAL Education.
Founded in 2014 by former CCTV host Kai Wang - known to the start-up's customers as Uncle Kai - Kaishu Story rewrites literary masterpieces for young readers and produces complementary audio series and online parenting courses. The content is delivered through a native app and a WeChat public account.
Kaishu Story's first publication was a version of "Journey to the West," one of the four great classical novels in Chinese literature. Wang spent three years on his version, writing 700,000 characters. Following the huge success of the audiobook, the company built a production team and standardized its content creation process. It also created virtual characters to take on Uncle Kai’s role and interact with children.
Audio content on the platform has been played more than seven billion times, according to the statement.
Kaishu Story raised RMB156 million ($22.7 million) in an extended tranche of Series B funding from a group of investors including Kunyan Investment and Loyal Valley Capital in 2018. A year earlier, it secured a RMB90 million Series B led by New Oriental. Trustbridge featured in that round.
Taihe Capital served as exclusive financial advisor for the latest round.
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