Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings has invested an additional $80 million in online beverage B2B trading platform Yijiupi, according to a 36Kr report.
The additional investment came nearly a year after Tencent and on-demand services platform Meituan Dianping led a $200-million financing for the Beijing-based online liquor retailer. That round had seen the startup valued at about $1.1 billion.
In March this year, Yijiupi raised $100 million in an extended Series D round led by global private equity major Warburg Pincus. According to Warburg Pincus, the fresh capital was to be be used by the startup for market expansion, product and technology development, as well as building a retail presence.
Founded in 2014, the unicorn started off as a liquor trading platform and has now diversified into other consumer group categories, covering the upstream and downstream e-commerce chain.
In 2018, it claims to have achieved over 13 billion yuan ($1.8 billion) in gross merchandise value (GMV) and distributed more than 8 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) worth of supply chain finance.
“In 2019, Yijiupi will achieve new breakthroughs in the industrial chain, while maintaining long-term growth on our platform. Data, cloud, AI-powered financing platform and other new business segments will form the company’s new growth and profitability achievement,” Yijiupi founder, chairman and CEO Wang Chaocheng said in an earlier announcement.
So far, Yijiupi has raised a total of $511.4 million in funding, according to Crunchbase data.
The company raised its $100 million Series C funding in 2016. The investment was led by Shanghai-based Greenwoods Asset Management, with participation from Source Code Capital, Light House Capital, Meituan-Dianping and HG Capital.
