Bytedance, a China-based digital media group backed by telecommunications group SoftBank, has raised an undisclosed amount from investment firm Tiger Global Management over the past 21 months, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
Tiger Global revealed the news in a letter sent to investors this week that was seen by the FT, but has not declared the size of its investment or stake.
The firm began purchasing shares when Bytedance was valued at about $37bn, sources told the FT, buying from undisclosed shareholders through several secondary investments. It is now valued at $90bn to $100bn based on recent secondary transactions, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bytedance operates a range of digital media properties, including TikTok, a short video sharing app with more than 800 million monthly active users that is particularly popular with younger users. Personalised news aggregation app Toutiao, short video app Vigo and video streaming service BuzzVideo are also among its properties.
The company was valued at $75bn in a $3bn funding round led by SoftBank in October 2018 that also featured General Atlantic, KKR and Primavera Capital Group, bringing its total funding to more than $6.1bn.
Financial services firm China Construction Bank’s CCB International division co-led a $1bn series D round for the company with Sequoia Capital the year before that allowed social media company Sina, which had backed Bytedance’s $100m series C round in 2014, to exit.
Sequoia led the series C round, which followed series A and B rounds in 2012 and 2013 which included quantitative trading and technology firm Susquehanna International Group and technology investor Yuri Milner.
