BAI leads $65m round for China P2P lending site

Morningside Venture Capital, GX Capital and Chinese online personal finance site Wacai.com also took part in the round, the company said in a press briefing.

Meili Jinrong was founded by Yannan Liu, formerly of Merrill Lynch and TPG Capital. Prior to Meili Jinrong, Liu co-founded another P2P lending platform called Yooli.com. The platform, which is still in operation, connects individual lenders with small-scale borrowers, whose credit rating is accessed by third-party institutions that aren't involved in the transactions.

Yooli previously raised two rounds of financing from SoftBank China Capital and Morningside. Liu left the firm this summer.

Liu's new venture targets a niche market, which focuses on providing loans to young Chinese consumers - aged 18-35 - who can't afford to purchase second-hand cars and electronics. The platform also allows borrowers to repay loans in instalments.

Meili Jinrong claims to have offered loans to 17,000 second-hand car purchasers since its inception in September, and it is targeting 80,000 loans by 2016. In consumer electronics, the company wants to issue RMB2 billion ($315 million) in loans next year.

Online personal finance platform Wacai raised a $80 million in an extended Series B round in July, which took its total funding to approximately $160 million since inception. New Horizon Capital, Ally Bridge Group, GX Capital, China Broadband Capital, CICC Capital, IDG Capital Partners, CDH Investments and Qiming Venture Partners were among the investors.

BAI is also an investor in Fenqile.com, an electronics retailer that allows buyers to pay in instalments. Fenqile received backing from Chinese online retailer JD.com in March. Prior to that, it scored a $100 million round led by DST Global.

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• Topics
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