Digital media company ByteDance had provided RMB180m ($25.7m) in series B funding for China-based celebrity management agency Mountain Top, 36Kr reported yesterday.
Founded in 2015, Mountain Top operates a talent agency with a roster of almost 50 television stars and online influencers including actresses Zhou Dongyu, who was ranked seventh on Forbes’ China Celebrity 100 list in 2019, and Angelababy, who was ranked 14th.
ByteDance is the owner of Douyin, the short-form video streaming app known as TikTok in the west, and Mountain Top has begun to manage some of its biggest stars, including Papi Jiang, who has more than 30 million followers.
Mountain Top also owns a multi-channel YouTube network called Papitube and has begun developing its own film and television productions.
The company plans to cooperate with ByteDance, which has begun working on its own original content, through a strategic partnership agreement.
ByteDance supplied an undisclosed amount of funding for Mountain Top in April 2019, though it is unclear how that relates to the latest investment, or whether they are the same.
Mountain Top had raised approximately $14.8m from private equity firm Guangdian Capital in 2016, and its earlier investors reportedly include venture capital firm ZhenFund.
