Tencent has poured another USD 2 billion into short video app Kuaishou’s pre-IPO round, in which the latter has raised nearly USD 3 billion, valuing the firm at roughly USD 28.6 billion, Chinese business media LatePost reported.
Yunfeng Capital, backed by Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma, also joined this time, as the e-commerce giant speeds up to leverage live-streaming to boost the online shopping sector. Boyu Capital, Temasek Holding, and Sequoia Capital are also among the investors.
After the completion of the deal, which is expected to be by end of this month, longtime backer Tencent would own 20% of Kuaishou, according to the LatePost report.
As part of the deal, Tencent and Kuaishou have been in talks over potential partnerships on their gaming-centric business. The two tech companies reportedly had a plan to form a joint venture focusing on game and entertainment content, but this plan might have changed into a cooperation contract. No other details have been disclosed.
Kuaishou is the main Chinese rival to ByteDance’s short-form video and live-streaming app Douyin. Tencent-backed platform is seeking to increase its number of daily active users to 300 million before 2020 Chinese Lunar New Year, from current 200 million, and the company has also won an exclusive deal with China Media Group 2020 annual New Year’s Gala, which is considered to be a key marketing opportunity for Chinese tech companies, KrASIA reported.