Ximalaya, a China-based podcast portal operator backed by internet technology group Tencent, has withdrawn its plans for an initial public offering in the United States.
The company revealed in May this year that it intended to list on the New York Stock Exchange having set a placeholder target of $100m.
Later the same month, regulators in its home country including the Cyberspace Administration of China urged the business to float in Hong Kong instead, three people privy to the matter told Reuters.
Founded in 2012, Ximalaya operates an audio streaming service that helps content creators engage directly with their fanbases. It claims to be the largest podcast platform in the country, citing a survey conducted by China Investment Corporation.
Tencent and its China Literature unit had each provided $25m for the company in February 2021, after a $10m round from General Atlantic two months before. Tencent also took part in a $580m round for Ximalaya in 2018 that included investment banking firm Goldman Sachs and General Atlantic, valuing it at $3.5bn post-money.
China Literature had provided $50m for the company in 2015 that came in the wake of an $11.5m series A round featuring SIG China, a subsidiary of technology and trading group Susquehanna International Group, as well as Sierra Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers the previous year.
Ximalaya’s shareholders also include China Creation Ventures, WestSummit Capital and China Broadband Capital.
Another China-headquartered company LinkDoc, which provides a healthcare data software platform and which counts e-commerce group Alibaba as a backer, had pushed back its own proposed IPO on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in July this year.
