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Top Investment Story
China’s first 300mm MEOL (middle-end-of-line) chip foundry SJSemi raised USD 300 million in a Series C round from investors including Walden CEL, China Construction Bank, Country Garden Venture, and CCIC Capital. The deal take SJSemi’s valuation above USD 1 billion. Founded in 2014, SJSemi specializes in advanced bumping and wafer-level packaging, which are key steps in semiconductor processing. Following the company’s capital restructuring in June 2021, the fresh funds will mainly go towards expanding bumping and packaging capacity, as well as R&D.
Startups on our watchlist
Baotong Logistics (宝通物流)
Baotong Logistics, a logistics subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed e-commerce service provider Baozun, secured a USD 217.9 million investment from Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao, giving Cainiao a 30% stake in the company. The deal brings Baotong’s total valuation to USD 726.3 million, and will allow Baotong to deepen its collaboration with Cainiao, including the sharing of warehousing and distribution resources.
Founded in 2016, Baotong is currently building its customer base in product categories like sportswear and electronics, as Baozun already provides e-commerce operation services for brands like Nike, Zara, Panasonic, and Bosch. Cainiao’s strategic investment in Baotong is intended to strengthen both parties’ capabilities in the high-end logistics sector.
KrASIA News Picks
Foreign social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have long been absent from China. But Microsoft’s professional networking service LinkedIn, with 54 million users in the country, was one of the last major links between Chinese netizens and their international counterparts until it decided last week to scrap its social services in China. The company said the move was due to “a more challenging operating environment.”
LinkedIn’s current form will be shut down in China later this year. The company will introduce a new portal, InJobs, that is solely for recruitment purposes and lacks features for users to interact and create content. This attempt at a compromise may seem like a half-hearted withdrawal from the Chinese market. It remains to be seen how InJobs will be able to compete with popular domestic rivals like Boss Zhipin, 51Job, and Zhilian Zhaopin.