Cathay leads Series D for China female social network
Cathay Capital Private Equity has led a Series D round of funding for Meet You, a Chinese social networking platform for women.
The GP is investing through its Sino-French Innovation Fund. Existing backer Matrix Partners also participated.
Meet You, operated by Xiamen Information Technology, launched in April 2013. It started as a menstruation tracking app and has since added a social networking platform, allowing users to share views on topics ranging from diet, beauty to parenting. The platform recently expanded into e-commerce business.
As of the end of July, the company claimed to have more than one billion registered users, with average daily active users of over five million.
China Renaissance K2 Ventures provided a Series A round for Meet You in 2013, and this was followed by $15 million Series B in 2014, led by Matrix Partners. Meet You founder Fangyi Chen and his team invested $5 million in the second round. In June of last year, SIG Asia Investment led a $35 million Series C round with participation from Matrix Partners and China Renaissance K2 Ventures.
With the new capital, Meet You plans to transform itself from a social networking platform to a female-oriented e-commerce site.
Cathay launched the Innovation Fund in July, with a target of EUR200-250 million ($222-277 million). It has already secured commitments from Bpifrance, a subsidiary of French state-owned bank Caisse des Dépôts, and China Development Bank (CDB) Capital. The two cornerstone investors contributes EUR100-150 million, while the remainder will be raised from the third-party investors.
Two months ago, Shenzhen-listed home appliance maker Joyoung committed EUR5 million to the fund.
The vehicle will invest in a total of 12-18 digital start-ups in France, China and the US, across mobile internet, big data, the internet-of-things, advertising, digital marketing, software, cloud technologies and social networking.
More on Greater China
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.