VCs back Chinese expense management start-up

Existing investors IDG Capital, China Growth Capital and Chinese Fintech group CeditEase re-upped in the round.

Founded in 2016 by Xi Lan, formerly of IDG, Fenbeitong raised a RMB70 million ($10 million) Serie A across two tranches in 2016 and 2017. Both were led by IDG. In 2018, it raised a RMB85 million Series B led by Shanghai-based Bojiang Capital.

Fenbeitong claims to have served more than 1,000 mid and large-sized enterprises, including hotpot restaurant chain Haidilao, US-listed apartment rental operator Danke Apartment, and the online division of New Oriental Education & Technology Group.

Plenty of start-ups in China offer online reimbursement solutions. Fenbeitong has chosen a more aggressive path. A customer's front-end payment and back-end expense management operations are fully integrated, which means data flow automatically through the system. This reduces the manual burden on finance departments.

In addition, Fenbeitong allows companies to pre-set expense standards, budgets, and approval flows, while the payments infrastructure is integrated with more than 150 hotel groups, restaurant chains, and travel agencies. It has also launched a virtual credit card that is bundled with a WeChat or Alipay account, enabling direct payments.

Other recent investment activity in the space includes a $50 million extended Series C round for Ekuaibao. The software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider, which specializes in corporate reimbursements, integrates purchasing, reimbursement, payment, and bookkeeping functions via an online platform and a mobile app. It claims to serve 175,000 corporate customers.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Early-stage
• Technology
• TMT
• Fintech
• China Growth Capital
• IDG capital