China-based network security products vendor Beijing Qianxin Technology is set to raise more than RMB3.73bn ($542m) in funding from telecommunications equipment manufacturer China Electronics Corporation (CEC), China Money Network reported on Friday.
CEC will receive a 22.6% stake in the business and the deal will value Qianxin at $2.4bn. The corporate will be Qianxin’s second largest shareholder, behind chairman and CEO Qi Xiangdong, who is also co-founder and president of cybersecurity software provider Qihoo 360.
Qianxin was spun out of Qihoo 360 to develop network security products and services that perform activities such as tracking of phishing threats in real time and thwarting distributed denial of service attacks, in addition to a cloud-based antivirus and anti-malware platform.
The company’s clients include government departments, state-owned enterprises and large financial services firms in China, and it has also expanded into Indonesia, Singapore and Canada.
CEC’s investment was strategic rather than purely financial, though further details could not be ascertained. Qianxin does not appear to have released details about its earlier funding.
