China VC Weekly: Fitness Tech, Groceries, Smart Car Washes and Big Data
This past week saw Keep, China’s answer to Nike’s Training Club, officially become the first unicorn in the world of fitness tech. Local grocery e-commerce pioneer MissFresh could be valued at $3 billion. In other notable news, Alibaba-backed smart car wash company 1KM raised a $30 million C+ round from ClearVue Capital, which will go in part towards overseas expansion. Chinese big data firm Sensors Data, similarly raised a $30 million C+ round from Xianghe Capital.
Keep becomes the first fitness tech unicorn
Chinese mobile fitness community Keep announced that it had completed an $80 million E-round of financing earlier this year, thus becoming the first fitness tech company to achieve unicorn status.
The financing round was led by Jeneration Capital, and followed by shareholders GGV Capital, Tencent, Morningside Venture Capital and BAI Capital.
The company said it will continue to focus on the mission of offering better fitness solutions and will strengthen its content and product capabilities. It aspires to be a sports experience platform and a brand that really addresses users’ exercise needs
About Keep
Founded in 2014, Keep has more than 200 million users. It started as an online fitness tutorial app that also features a community space. As the app grew in popularity, the company launched its own brand of sports-related consumer goods such as fitness equipment, electronic devices and clothing. In 2018, Keep opened offline gyms named Keepland that feature group classes.
E-commerce Grocery Firm MissFresh Raises funds at a $3 billion valuation
Chinese E-commerce Grocery Startup MissFresh has completed a new round of financing at a pre-investment valuation of more than $3 billion. 36kr cited people familiar with the matter that MissFresh has multiple partners in this round of financing, including CICC Fund. MissFresh has not yet commented on the issue.
MissFresh has already raised eight rounds of financing, with a total amount of nearly $900 million. Its previous investors include Goldman Sachs China, Tencent and Tiger Fund, among others.
About MissFresh
MissFresh is an e-commerce and food delivery platform specializing in fresh groceries. It has been reported to raise funds at a valuation of $2 billion to $3 billion since last year. In December, MissFresh also received 5 billion yuan in syndicated credit and special fund support from Changshu Municipal Government.
Smart car wash chain 1KM bags $30 million from ClearVue Partners
China’s largest smart car wash company 1KM announced the completion of a $30 million C+ round of financing. ClearVue Partnersled the round. Proceeds of the new round will be used for technology development, market expansion and brand building. As a US dollar fund, ClearVue Partners will help 1KM expand overseas.
In 2019, 1KM completed five rounds of financing, with total financing of more than 800 million yuan contributed by Alibaba, Regent Capital, PICC PE, Centurium Capital and other notable investors.
So far, the company claims to be operating 1,400 stores in 21 provinces and cities in China, serving more than 2.5 million users, with an average monthly order volume of 1 million. 1KM hopes to grow the store number to 3,500 this year.
About 1KM
Founded in shanghai in 2014, 1KM officially launched its smart car washing robot in August 2017. Users scan a QR code and choose a washing mode, after which they park their car and the machine washes the car. Payment is completed after washing.
Big Data analysis firm Sensors Data closes a $30 million Series C + round
Sensors Data closed a $30 million Series C + round of financing led by Xianghe Capital. Other investors including Morningside Venture Capital, DCM China, Warburg Pincus, Sequoia Capital China, Linear Venture and FutureCap also participated in the round.
Proceeds of the round will be used for product development and marketing, and promotion of the company’s new product matrix strategy.
Currently, the main areas of Sensors Data’s focuses include online education, online entertainment, corporate services, e-commerce, and Internet finance, as well as the Internet+ segment, especially the retail and optoelectronics verticals.
About Sensors Data
Founded in 2015, Sensors Data is a professional big data analysis platform service provider. Focusing on user-level big data analysis and management needs, it has launched products such as Sensor Analytics, Sensor Intelligent Operation, Sensor Intelligent Recommendations, and Sensor User Portraits, to helps enterprise customers achieve data-driven development.
