China O2O services player Daojia pursues US listing

The three investors committed $300 million in 2015 when Daojia was spun out by its parent, local classifieds platform 58.com. The 58 Daojia entity in which they invested still exists as the majority shareholder in Daojia. Following the offering, 58 Daojia will distribute ordinary shares to its shareholders. As a result, 58.com will retain overall control of the business.

58.com was listed in the US until last year when a private equity consortium took the company private at a valuation of $8.7 billion.

Daojia’s filing comes against a backdrop of considerable uncertainty around Chinese IPOs in the US. Last week, within days of completing a $4.4 billion offering, ride-hailing giant Didi was targeted by Chinese regulators for violating personal data collection rules. Two more recently listed companies, online trucking business Manbang and recruitment platform Boss Zhipin, face similar investigations.

Daojia claims to be China’s largest home services platform, connecting consumers with the likes of nannies, cleaners, and handymen. The company has more than 1.5 million registered and verified service providers in its network. Over 4.2 million customers have used the platform to date.

In addition to the main Swan Daojia platform, Daojia providers training for service providers, with an industry-recognized accreditation system, and supplies software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to home services agencies. As of March 2021, there had been one million enrollments in training courses, and 96 home services agencies across 73 cities had signed up for the SaaS offering.

China’s home services market is highly fragmented, with approximately 630,000 home services agencies and more than 30 million individual service providers, according to iResearch Consulting.

Meanwhile, demand for these services is growing. The market is projected to be worth RMB2.1 trillion ($324.4 billion) by 2025, up from RMB909 billion last year. Around 39 million of China’s 494 million households used outsourced home services in 2020. Over the same period, home services workforce training is expected to grow from RMB23.7 billion to RMB88.5 billion.

Daojia’s gross transaction volume came to RMB8.83 billion in 2020, down 4% year-on-year because COVID-19 dampened demand, the prospectus states. Nevertheless, revenue rose 16.4% to RMB711.1 million, while the net loss narrowed from RMB615.6 million to RMB614.7 million.

In the first three months of 2021, gross transaction volume reached RMB1.07 billion, up 57.3% year-on-year, and revenue jumped 38.4% to RMB197 million. The company’s net loss widened from RMB126.4 million to RMB143.9 million.

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• Ping An