China manicure service app raises $50m Series C from VCs

Investors taking part in the round included IDG Capital Partners, China Broadband Capital, and the company's founder Xing Meng who contributed $7.5 million. Meng, who announced the news on his official Weibo microblog, did not disclose who the leading investor in the round was.

The app, operated by Beijing Helijia Information Technology, was launched last year. It provides an online-to-offline (O2O) platform where user can book appointments with nail therapists.

The location and meeting time are negotiated by two parties, and when the nails are done, customer can pay through Alibaba's e-commerce payment platform Alipay and rate the service on Helijia's app. Based on customer's rating, the better a manicurist performs, the more appointments they are likely to get.

Compared to traditional manicure shops, Helijia is able to provide a lower price since it saves costs of running a store. The company claims that it receives more than 8,000 orders every day. It plans to launch a female service package later this year, providing manicure, hair styling and make-up services at one fixed price.

IDG led a RMB30 million ($5 million) Series A round in July last year, then CBC came in to lead a Series B round the same year.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Venture
• Consumer
• China
• TMT
• Venture
• IDG Capital Partners
• China Broadband Capital
• Growth capital
• Consumer