Yonghui Fresh Food, the grocery supply affiliate of one of China’s biggest retailers Yonghui Superstores, is reportedly looking to raise about $200 million. Separately, CloudView, a global internet browser developer backed by Chinese investors, has raised almost $100 million.
Yonghui Fresh Food eyes $1.5b valuation in pre-IPO round: report
Yonghui Fresh Food, the grocery supply affiliate of Chinese supermarket chain Yonghui Superstores, is reportedly looking to raise about $200 million ahead of a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) next year.
Yonghui Fresh Food, whose shareholders include Sequoia Capital China, Hillhouse Capital Group, and Tencent Holdings Ltd, is targeting a valuation of 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) despite the cooling climate for private investment, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The people, who asked for anonymity because the information is private, said that Yonghui Fresh Food has also been in talks with financial advisors for a public share sale in Hong Kong that could happen as soon as the second quarter of 2023.
Discussions around the fundraising and IPO are ongoing and details such as deal size, timeline, and venue could change, the people said. Yonghui Fresh Food did not immediately respond to DealStreetAsia’s request for comments.
The B2B startup, which offers fresh produce and one-stop catering solutions to corporate clients nationwide, was valued at 7.5 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) during a funding round in late 2020, the people said.
Yonghui Fresh Food had raised 1 billion yuan ($145.7 million) in the deal from lead investors Yonghui Superstores, Tencent, and CICC Capital, an investment platform of financial services giant China International Capital Corporation (CICC), according to a stock exchange filing by Yonghui Superstores in December 2020. Upon the completion of the transaction, Yonghui Superstores remained the largest shareholder with a 32.33% stake, followed by Hillhouse and Sequoia China with 26.4% and 13.4% shares, respectively.
The seven-year-old firm currently has 32 fresh produce factories and warehouses, with operations across 20 cities and provinces in China, its official website shows.
Tencent-backed CloudView raises $100m
CloudView, a global internet browser developer backed by Chinese investors, has raised almost $100 million to consolidate its position across emerging markets including Africa.
The fresh capital will help CloudView — a joint venture (JV) among Chinese tech giant Tencent, Africa’s biggest smartphone manufacturer Transsion Holdings, and venture capital (VC) company Welight Capital — step up R&D investment, recruit local talent, and speed up user growth to expand beyond its existing local operations across 17 countries and regions.
An unspecified sovereign wealth fund invested in the deal, alongside existing shareholders Transsion and Welight Capital, said Future Hub in a post on its WeChat official account. Future Hub is a Transsion-backed incubator investing in Africa-focused early-stage internet startups.
CloudView did not immediately reply to DealStreetAsia’s request for comments.
Founded in late 2019, CloudView offers Phoenix Browser, an Android browser, to users in more than 200 emerging countries and regions in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. The browser, which is available in over 25 languages, provides internet search functions and access to various digital content including videos, music, gaming, and beyond.
Since its official launch in 2019, Phoenix Browser has developed to book over 100 million monthly active users (MAUs) with more than 400 million of accumulated downloads, according to statistics disclosed by Future Hub.