China’s Fenbeitong raises $140m

Existing investors Hillhouse Capital, Ribbit Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, Glade Brook Capital Partners, and BitRock Capital were joined by new investors including D1 Capital Partners, Whale Rock Capital, Saudi Aramco's P7 Ventures, and Emergence.

The company drew inspiration from US start-ups Bex and Divvy, which brought together front-end payment and back-end expense management by offering expense control systems plus corporate credit cards. TripActions, another US player, expanded the model further with the addition of business travel agency services. All three companies became unicorns within five years.

Fenbeitong claims to have pioneered the three-in-one model used by TripActions locally, offering a fully integrated and automated product. However, the company has chosen a path it describes as “from hard to easy” by starting with travel agency inclusion and spending five years cultivating the supply chain. It claims to have maintained threefold growth for three consecutive years.

All high-frequency expenditure scenarios such as business travel meals, office supply purchases are included in the app. The company has also expanded into the payment space, launched a virtual card, and added a reimbursement function to achieve a closed-loop management of corporate spending. Transaction volume has now exceeded CNY 16bn (USD 2.5bn).

Companies can 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. Payments can be made via app, online banking, or a virtual credit card that is bundled with a WeChat or Alipay account.

Customers include soft drink brand Genki Forest, industrial products e-commerce platform Zhenkunhang, DaShenLin Pharmaceutical and construction service provider Jiangho Group, and Chinese artificial intelligence chip maker Intellifusion.

"The solution of Fenbeitong has freed our employees and finance from monthly reimbursement. In the past, eight nodes were needed for the approval of expenses, but today only two are needed. Employee consumption and project expenditure can be monitored and mastered in the background, and there is sufficient real data to support enterprises to analyse the input-output ratio,” Intellifusion said.

Founded in 2016 by Xi Lan, formerly of IDG, Fenbeitong raised RMB70 million in Serie A funding across two tranches in 2016 and 2017. Both were led by IDG. Bojiang Capital then led a RMB85 million Series B in 2018. A Series B extension of $36 million closed in 2019, with Ribbit, Eight Roads, and Glade Brook taking the lead. Hillhouse Capital and Tencent Holdings led a USD 92.5 million Series C round for Fenbeitong in March last year.

Other Chinese expense management software businesses that have received VC funding include Ekuaibao and Huilianyi. The latter covers the entire expense process, from payment through bookkeeping, but stops short of the front-end payment element.

Yuanyi Capital was the exclusive financing adviser of this round.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Expansion
• Technology
• China
• DST Advisors
• Ribbit Capital
• Hillhouse Capital Management
• Eight Roads