Sequoia leads Series A for China software start-up Terminus
Hangzhou-based enterprise software company Terminus has raised RMB400 million ($61 million) in Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital China. Existing investors Alibaba Cloud and Glory Ventures re-upped.
The company - which was established in 2012 by a team that spun out from Alibaba Group - will use the new capital for software development and team expansion.
Terminus initially focused on infrastructure-level platform-as-a-service (PaaS) but is now building a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. The goal is to offer multiple functions - membership marketing, omnichannel operations, procurement, and online sales - on top of the platform.
The company's one-stop, closed-loop solution is intended to deliver better continuity and service simplicity to large-scale enterprises. For example, when a business brings offline sales online, Terminus can help integrate the offline point-of-sale (POS) system with the online platform.
Terminus covers industries such as retail, real estate, energy, and manufacturing. Customers include ExxonMobil, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), Bright Dairy & Food, Xinhua Bookstore, and property developers Vanke, Longfor, China Overseas Land, and Shimao. It also has clients in Southeast Asia, America, and Europe.
Alibaba Group, Tencent Holdings, and Huawei Technologies have all launched middle platform solutions or PaaS solutions – which enable customers to collect and manage data, and run business applications offered by SaaS players.
Zhifeng Li, head of WeChat Work, Tencent’s enterprise coordinating tool, has compared his product to a house that comes equipped with basic utilities such as water and electricity. The “fine decoration” is carried out by partners who offer SaaS applications and smart hardware that integrates with WeChat Work.
Some investors have observed that many PaaS companies offer customized solutions instead of standardized projects, so margins are low. In theory, SaaS involves standardized, mass-market products, so margins should be better.
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