Meituan-Dianping, a Chinese group-deals site, has closed a gigantic $3.3 billion funding round at a valuation of $18 billion. Tencent, DST Global; TBP Capital, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Baillie Gifford, CDB Kai Yuan Capital Management; Capital Today; and Temasek Holdings all participated in the investment round. The company claims that the financing is the largest single round ever raised by a Chinese venture-backed Internet startup. The funding round values Meituan-Dianping higher than Chinese taxi hailing startup Didi Kuaidi, but lower than the likes of Uber, Xiaomi, Airbnb and Palantir.
Hong Kong-based fintech startup WeLab has raised $160 million in funding from Malaysia’s state fund Khazanah Nasional. Other investors include ING Bank and Guangdong Financial Technology. WeLab provides consumer loans in China and Hong Kong through mobile and online platforms. Ralph Hamers, CEO of ING, said: “The stake we have taken in WeLab and the other investments prove that we are determined to transform banking to further improve the customer experience. We will look at the possibilities of starting a partnership with WeLab in ING markets.”
French music streaming platform Deezer has secured $109 million in funding led by Access Industries. OrangeSA, and existing investor, also participated in the round. Deezer was planning an IPO until three months ago, when it abruptly canceled its offering. “We’re in the early stages of the music streaming market and it’s quickly becoming the primary distribution channel for music,” said Hans-Holger Albrecht, Chief Executive Officer, Deezer. “The additional funding will allow Deezer to consolidate our position as a leading global, independent audio streaming service and expand our offering to music lovers around the world.”
JFrog, which provides tools for software developers, has raised a $50 million investment round from new investors Scale Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Battery Ventures, Vintage Investment Partners and Qumra Capital. Existing investors also participated. “The software world is tired of domain dictators and demands a universal powerful solution that supports all technologies and software packages,” said Shlomi Ben Haim, co-founder and CEO of JFrog. “DevOps and developer teams deserve more – they demand a multi-package, highly available and secured end-to-end solution. JFrog Artifactory and JFrog Bintray are not just a Docker registry, or an npm or Maven repository; it’s how the world’s biggest organizations choose to host, manage and distribute their software.”