Taikang Life leads $220m round for China’s Womai

Chinese search giant Baidu, Yunlong Capital and Yang Guang Ronghui Capital - a PE fund of Sunshine Insurance - also participated. COFCO remains the largest shareholder in the firm.

This is Taikang Life Insurance's first PE investment in the domestic e-commerce sector. Womai, which means "I buy" in China, was set up in 2009 by COFCO as an online, business-to-customer (B2C) food and beverage play. It specializes in selling imported products directly to Chinese consumers, including seafood, liquor and baby care products. It operates food product storage centers in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and distributes goods in 142 cities.

As part of the agreement, Taikang will work with Womai.com in the areas of nutrition, wealth management and insurance services. Baidu will open its online database to Womai, linking the online grocery shop with its group-buying site Nuomi.com and online food take-away service Waimai.com.

Womai previously raised an undisclosed Series A round led by SAIF Partners in July 2013. In August last year, IDG Capital Partners led a $100 million Series B round alongside SAIF.

Womai plans to use $100 million from the new round to develop its cold chain logistics and third-party delivery capabilities, covering more than 300 Chinese cities over the next two years. It aims to deliver food to customers within 48 hours. There will also be investment in improving packaging and warehousing facilities.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Venture
• Expansion
• Technology
• China
• TMT
• Venture
• Growth capital