Chinese Online Training Platform Yunxuetang Closes $190 Million Series E at a $1 billion Valuation
March 30, 2021, Beijing – Yunxuetang (YXT), a China-based online corporate training services provider, has recently completed two series E rounds, E1+E2, within three months of each other, totaling $190 million. Venture capital firm Matrix Partners China led the series E2 tranche with additional contributions from Sequoia Capital China and Hundreds Capital. The E1 round was closed in January 2021 and led by Tencent. Prior to this round, Yunxuetang received multiple rounds of financing from top-tier private equity managers such as Centurium Capital, YF Capital, SIG, Ximalaya, and Everest VC. After the completion the series E financing, Yunxuetang become a unicorn and best-funded corporate training service provider in the industry. This round of financing will be used for AI technology and software product innovation, data center and IT center construction, content development and customer experience enhancement. Corporate training has grown year over year, but it gained stronger growth momentum in 2020 due the COVID-19 outbreak. The pandemic resulted in an urgent need for digital transformation, and companies quickly shifted from offline training to online. As the largest and most comprehensive corporate training technology company in China, Yunxuetang has led the way in providing business digitalization solutions. Yunxuetang, founded in 2011,...
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Asia Venture Capital Journal Deal focus: ANE Logistics Targets an Attractive Middle
China’s less-than-truckload logistics market, which sits in between express couriers and big truck operators, is ripe for consolidation. GPs have identified their favored players. This story was written and published by Asia Venture Capital Journal at: https://www.avcj.com/avcj/official-record/3023087/deal-focus-ane-logistics-targets-an-attractive-middle By Larissa Ku March 4, 2021The recent $300 million round for ANE Logistics represents the continuation of a trend. It is the third large large-scale deal in 12 months in China’s less-than-truckload (LTL) logistics space, where capital appears to be coalescing around the three market leaders.In addition to ANE’s round – which was led by CPE – SF Freight, the LTL arm of local courier giant SF Express, received $300 million from CITIC Capital, CDH investments and Legend Capital, while the likes of Boyu Capital and Hopu Investment piled into a RMB1 billion ($154 million) extended Series D round for Yimidida.LTL operators occupy the logistics industry’s middle ground. They typically carry goods 30 kilograms and 3 tons by road; too big for the express parcel players and too small for full-truck-load carriers. “You can distinguish between the three segments in last-mile delivery by vehicle type,” says Jeff Wang, chairman of ANE. “It’s motorcycles for general parcels, vans for LTL, and trucks are full-truck-load.”Buoyed...
202103-15 -
Centurium Capital Invests in Leading E-Signature Service Provider Fadada
March 11, 2021 – Fadada, a leading e-signature and cloud contract service provider in China, announced today that the company has completed D-round financing of RMB 900 million from Tencent, Centurium Capital and ZWC Partners. Mr. Xiang Huang, Founder and CEO of Fadada, commented, “With a primary focus on e-signature application and e-contract signing solutions, we are a leader in technology and product innovation. We will continue to expand our partnership network to promote scalable cloud contract signing applications in all industry verticals and deliver value for our customers and clients.” Fadada offers a full suite of e-signature products including one-stop SaaS products, open API solutions for corporate IT and ERP systems, as well as hybrid cloud solutions for local hosting of electronic contracts and process management. Fadada is a pioneer in legal technology innovation. It was the earliest provider of block-chain based e-signature product with enhanced security features and credibility. It pioneered in building an industry-leading e-contract management system, which significantly improved the efficiency of the legal process involved in contract signing. It was the first to enable online data sharing and connection with judiciary bodies, including online arbitration institutions, online courtroom, notary offices and forensic evaluation centers, providing...
202103-11 -
Chinese Leading GPGPU Developer Iluvatar CoreX Completes RMB1.2 Billion Financing Led by Centurium Capital and Cedarlake Capital
March 1, 2021 – Iluvatar Corex (“Iluvatar” or “the Company”), a leading graphics processing units for general-purpose computing (GPGPU) developer in China, today announced that the Company has completed C-round financing of RMB1.2 billion. The financing was jointly led by Centurium Capital and Cedarlake Capital, and participated by Gortune Investment and China Unicom Innovation Investment. The financing is expected to facilitate the Company to enhance its research capabilities of its core products and accelerate the commercialization to empower more customers in multiple sectors. Centurium first invested in Iluvator in 2019 through the Company’s B round financing. GPU is the mainstream solution for powering artificial intelligence computation in areas like autonomous driving, finance, education, and healthcare. GPU chips, which can satisfy general graphics and high-performance computing, are deemed to represent the height of chip technology. Illuvatar, headquartered in Shanghai, is the only company in China that has chip products under the GPU architecture. The company initiated the 7-nanometer cloud computing GPGPU chip in 2018 and was taped out in May 2020, and its usability was proved last December. The flagship GPGPU product, BI, provides more flexible programming ability and stronger performance at a lower cost than competing mainstream offerings. Charles Lin,...
202103-01 -
ANE Logistics Completes Approximately US$ 300 Million Financing
ANE Logistics, China’s leading less-than-truckload (LTL) logistics service platform, today announced that it has received approximately US$300 million financing. The financing is led by CPE and participated by Great Bay Area Fund, NWS Holdings (0659.HK), Liumai Capital and Huagai Capital. Since its inception 10 years ago, ANE Logistics has become a leading and well-regarded LTL logistics player through consolidating the LTL truck transportation industry and building the truck transportation partnership platform. So far, the daily peak truckload handled by ANE has surpassed 50,000 tons, with over 26,000 partner outlets and agents covering 96% of the townships in China. The successful financing demonstrates the strong confidence by the capital market in the LTL sector and leading logistics network players. Jeff Wang, Chairman of ANE Logistics, commented: “The logistics network is an important pillar supporting the development of China’s internet-driven C2M manufacturing industry and flattened supply chain, as well as part of the infrastructure for the manufacturing and logistics sectors. ANE will leverage this financing to invest in the upgrade of the digital capabilities and acceleration of China’s logistics sector.” Centurium Capital invested in ANE in January 2020 and is its second largest shareholder in the company. Michael Chen, Managing Director of...
202102-12 -
YXT Closes E1 Financing Led by Tencent
January 26, 2021 -- YXT (Yunxuetang), a leading corporate training SaaS and services provider in China, today announced the closing of E1 round of financing led by Tencent. YXT’s existing investors include Centurium Capital, YF Capital and Himalaya Capital. So far, YXT has raised a total of US$300 million funding since its founding. Teng Zu, CEO of YXT, said that the E1 financing will be invested in AI technology and software product innovation, buildout of digital and IT capabilities, improvement of content production and delivery, as well as upgrade of client services. Yunxuetang’s total solutions include training infrastructure establishment, training materials development, training program maintenance, data analysis and vendor management to meet increasing demands for more efficient staff training as Chinese companies grow and evolve. According to a research by Qianzhan Research Institute, China’s corporate training market will reach RMB768.1 billion in 2020 and is expected to exceed RMB 900 billion in 2025.
202101-26