Rental Platform Beike Completes $1.5B D+ Round Led by Softbank
On Mar. 4, one of China’s leading online long-term apartment rental companies Beike officially confirmed that it had completed a D+ round of financing in November 2019. The participants of the round include SoftBank, Tencent, Hillhouse Capital, and Sequoia, with a total financing amount of about $1.5 billion. SoftBank lead the pack with an investment of almost $1 billion. Additionally, the company’s property management and subleasing brand Ziroom also received an $1 billion investment from Softbank.
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The company plans to use the raised funds for research and development, product application innovation, and talent recruitment and training in the industrial Internet field. It is committed to promoting the digitalization and ecological optimization of the apartment rental industry, and further improving the efficiency of the Chinese residential service industry.
Beike’s other brand, Ziroom, also received an $1 billion investment from Softbank through its Vision Fund, of which $500 million was invested directly, and another $500 million shares were purchased from its founder. After the investment, the platform’s valuation reached $6.6 billion.
Prior to this, Ziroom had completed two rounds of financing, an A round of 4 billion yuan, led by Wargur Pincus, Sequoia Capital China, and Tencent in January 2018 and a B round totalling $500 million in June 2019.