TechCrunch
China-based Wanda E-commerce, which hopes to position itself as a rival against Alibaba, has raised one billion RMB (about $161 million) in funding from investment funds Shengke Limited and Hong Kong Xu De Ren Dao E-commerce Investment Co. Wanda E-commerce says this quadruples its valuation to 20 billion yuan (about $3 billion).
Wanda E-commerce was founded in August as a five billion RMB ($814 million) joint venture by mega-conglomerate Wanda and two of China’s biggest Internet firms, Tencent and Baidu. Wanda’s holdings in China include real estate, hotels, movie theaters, and shopping malls, but in the West the company is probably best known for acquiring AMC Theatres and Sunseeker International, a British yacht maker.
In a statement, Wanda E-commerce says it expects to be fully operational in the fourth quarter of this year, when it will also initiate a second round of fundraising. After the funding, Centec Networks now holds a three percent equity stake in Wanda E-commerce, while Xude Rendao holds two percent.
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