JD Finance Raises RMB 13 Billion in Series B at a Valuation of RMB 133 Billion

JD Finance announced on July 12 the details of their upcoming Series B fundraising round. The financial spin-off of the e-commerce platform JD.com Inc. will raise 13 billion yuan ($1.95 billion) at a post-money valuation of 133 billion yuan by the end of this quarter.

Investors of this round include China International Capital Corporation (CICC), Bank Of China Group Investment (BOCGI), CSC Financial, CITIC Capital.

Founded in October 2013, JD Finance became independent from JD.com in the second quarter of 2017. Rival Alibaba spun off its financial services arm Ant Financial in 2014, while another Chinese Internet giant, Baidu Inc., followed suit with Du Xiaoman Financial earlier this year.

Chen Shengqiang, CEO of JD Finance, stated at the Bo’ao Forum in March 2017 that the core competence of JD Finance is not capital but technology. At least three-fifth of JD Finance employees work in departments related to technology risk management and big data, Chen said in an interview in April.

Often compared to Ant Financial who raised $14 billion in Series C last month, JD Finance has shifted their focus to servicing businesses, such as financial institutions and corporations, and their consumers. It already works with 700 financial institutions, according to its statement.

This is the first round JD Finance has fundraised as an independent company.

Previously, JD Finance raised 6.7 billion yuan in Series A with Sequoia China, Harvest Investments and China Taiping Insurance as lead investors in January 2016. With another Series A+ round of 14.3 billion yuan raised last March, the new round will place the total amount raised at around 34 billion yuan.