China’s Le Sports completes $1.2b Series B round
Le Sports, an independently funded subsidiary of China’s LeTV Holdings, has completed a $1.2 billion Series B funding round at a post-money valuation of $3.3 billion.
More than 30 investors, including Chinese conglomerate HNA Group and several celebrity investors, such as actors Honglei Sun and Nailiang Jia and actress Tao Liu, participated in the round. The complete list of investors will be announced in mid-April, Le Sports said in a statement.
Two weeks ago, HNA announced that it would commit RMB1.2 billion ($184 million) to Le Sports via its corporate investment arm HNA Capital. The transaction enabled HNA to acquire a 5.85% stake in the company.
Le Sports, established in March 2014, covers the entire value chain of sport business. Its strategy blends events operations, streaming content, and internet-enabled smart devices. To that end, it offers online-to-offline (O2O) sport training, gaming, e-commerce and ticketing services.
At present the company has broadcast and media rights for over 300 sports events covering 10,000 matches. In November, Le Sports partnered with Beijing Bird's Nest Culture Creative to launch a sport-focused industry fund - Le Sports Innovation Fund - with a target size of $772 million.
In May of last year, Le Sports raised a RMB800 million Series A round led by Yunfeng Capital and Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, which valued the business at RMB2.9 billion. Shenzhen Fortune Link and Prometheus Capital, a PE fund set up by the son of Jianlin Wang, Wanda's chairman, also participated alongside several high-net-worth individuals.
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