China-based online group buying platform Pinduoduo completed a $3bn funding round, which was reportedly led by internet group Tencent at a $15bn valuation. The round also reportedly featured venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. Tencent had previously backed a $110m series B round raised by Pinduoduo in 2016, which included investment firm Banyan Capital and private equity fund New Horizon Capital.
Founded in 2015, Pinduoduo runs an e-commerce offering that allows users to utilise social media platforms to form purchasing groups to secure discounts of up to 90%. The platform offers products across a wide range of categories such as food, cosmetics and baby care. Claims to have attracted a total of approximately 300 million users. Users of Tencent’s messaging service WeChat can use it to connect and form such purchasing groups.
The e-commerce retail space has formed an integral part of the total deal flow within emerging businesses from the consumer sector, as the GCV Analytics bar chart shows. This is particularly true in the age of digitisation, where e-commerce forms part of the ecosystem of social media services, such as WeChat in this case. For more information on the consumer sector, read the upcoming issue of Global Corporate Venturing.
