China renovation materials trading platform raises $400m
Chubby Bear, a Shanghai-based B2B platform that matches buyers with suppliers of renovation materials, has raised $400 million across two tranches of Series C funding.
CMC Group led the first tranche and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the extended tranche. Other investors include Matrix Partners China, Genesis Capital, Tencent Holdings, Hundreds Capital, Immensus Capital, Yunqi Partners, Ab Initio Capital, Cygnus Equity, and ex-Meituan COO Jiawei Gan, according to a statement.
Founded in 2015 and also known as Xiaopangxiong, Chubby Bear primarily serves interior decorators. It stocks 10,000 different product lines and has 100,000 square meters of warehouse space in 20 cities, including all four of China's tier-one centers.
The company's service scope has gradually expanded from basic renovation materials to include the full range of mainstream and auxiliary materials, as well as related design, distribution, and installation services.
China's renovation materials industry - and the interior designers it supplies - is highly fragmented. Like other B2B trading platforms, Chubby Bear uses technology to aggregate demand and supply, removing some of the middlemen, making it easier to find pricing information, and streamlining procurement.
The company - which operates via a website, an app, and its offline warehouse network - expects to benefit from a slowdown in China's property market because it encourages cost-cutting.
Chubby Bear raised RMB130 million ($18 million) in 2019 led by Immensus, with participation from Matrix and Yunqi. Other VC-backed players in the space include Zhangshangfucai, which specializes in home decoration materials.
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