Tmall has raised a new round of financing from venture capital firm DST Global, valued at $17 billion.
1min read On July 11, it was reported that Xiaohongshu had recently arranged to sell shares to existing shareholders and new investors, and successfully attracted DST Global, a venture capital company, and raised a new round of capital from Sequoia China, Hony Capital, Bony Capital and China Capital, valuing Xiaohongshu at about $17 billion. Xiaohongshu declined to comment on the news.
The report said DST was founded by Israeli technology entrepreneur Yuri Milner, who was an investor in Facebook, but DST did not disclose the size of the investment in Xiaohongshu. GSR Ventures and Temasek Holdings are also shareholders of Xiaohongshu.
In March this year, it was reported that Xiaohongshu's revenue in 2023 was $3.7 billion, up 85% from $2 billion in 2022; its net profit was $500 million, reversing a loss of $200 million in 2022. According to data shared by Xiaohongshu with investors, its monthly active users reached 312 million in 2023, up 20% from the previous year. Xiaohongshu has become the fastest growing large social media platform in China in 2023.
From the financing process and valuation, Xiaohongshu is favored by investment institutions:
In November 2021, Xiaohongshu completed a $500 million financing round led by Temasek Holdings and Tencent, with old shareholders such as Alibaba, Tencent Holdings, Yuntou Capital and Yuansheng Capital participating in the follow-up investment, valuing the company at $20 billion, up more than six times from the $3 billion valuation in the D round in 2018;
In September 2023, it was reported that Sequoia China had acquired Xiaohongshu's shares at a valuation of about $14 billion through several transactions earlier; prior to this, Sequoia China did not hold shares of Xiaohongshu;
On December 25, 2023, it was reported that Xiaohongshu might go public in Hong Kong as soon as the second half of 2024, and plan to raise another round of capital before the IPO. Xiaohongshu has previously responded that the company has no plan to go public at present.
Altive, a private equity data brokerage, said last year that Xiaohongshu's valuation range was large, partly because some real estate families had liquidity needs, and since the core business of these shareholders was affected by macroeconomic environment and the epidemic, they were more willing to accept larger discounts to speed up the divestment, resulting in a large valuation range.
