<article>China&#8217;s online parenting services platform <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Babytree">Babytree</a> has announced a strategic investment from Alibaba that values the former at RMB 14 billion ($2.19 billion).</article>

China&#8217;s online parenting services platform <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Babytree">Babytree</a> has announced a strategic investment from Alibaba that values the former at RMB 14 billion ($2.19 billion).
The stake picked by the Chinese e-commerce giant was not announced but Chinese media reports pegged it at around 10 per cent.
&#8220;Both sides will carry out extensive co-operation in the areas of e-commerce, C2M services (customer-to-maker), advertising sales, paid expert knowledge, new online and off-line retail, and other related maternal &amp; child businesses,&#8221; said a Babytree statement.
The Alibaba investment comes a week after <a href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Jumei%20International">Jumei International Holding</a>, a Chinese online retailer of beauty products, announced that it has sold 4 per cent of its stake in BabyTree to a third-party investor for approximately $86.5 million.
The divestment left Jumei with approximately 3.33 per cent of the total issued and outstanding share capital of BabyTree Group.
Founded in 2007 as an online parenting community, Babytree now offers maternal and child-rearing tools, e-commerce, and C2M products and services, as well as healthcare services. It claims to have 200 monthly active users.
Babytree was backed by Matrix Partners China in 2008 with a $10-million venture funding.
In 2014, Babytree earned $23.5 million in the sale of its undisclosed minority shares to Chinese after-school tutoring services firm TAL Education Group. Then in July 2015, Babytree secured a convertible loan and a revolving credit facility of up to RMB1.55 billion with Chinese beauty products e-commerce firm Jumei International Holding Ltd.
Babytree, which considers itself as China’s largest online community for parents, announced its most recent fundraising at the end of 2016 in a Fosun-led RMB 3 billion ($450 million) round.
Its main brands and products include Babytree.com, a vertical community website for mothers and babies; Babytree Pregnancy, an app designed for mothers to learn scientific childcare knowledge and to exchange and make friends; Babytree WeTime, an app designed for families to record and share their baby&#8217;s growth and family life; and Meitunmama, an e-commerce app that adopts the mode of community + e-commerce.
China’s policy allowing couples to have up to two children gave birth to more startups focused on baby and parenting, like maternal and infant products e-commerce platform Beibei.com, and maternity and baby products flash sales platform Mia.com.
Babytree cited public reports that said 80 per cent of Chinese mothers wish their children could receive early childhood education, but only 15 per cent of moms took their children to education centres. Only 40 per cent of these mothers were satisfied with the quality of educational courses, Babytree said.
“As Babytree has spent the past decade serving the maternity and infant industry, we would help young families who pursue the good quality of life to deal with problems like imbalances between supply and demand of education resources, imbalances between consumption and supply of medical resources, among others,” said Allen Wang, the founder and CEO of Babytree at the Global Education Summit (GES) Future Education Conference in Beijing last December.
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Babytree said it is valued at RMB 14 billion ($2.19 billion) after the strategic investment from Alibaba.

Alibaba picks stake in Chinese online parenting platform Babytree

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Alibaba picks stake in Chinese online parenting platform Babytree

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