Danke Apartment, the China-based operator of an online apartment rental platform, has raised $100m in series B funding from investors including a subsidiary of media conglomerate Bertelsmann, China Money Network reported today.
Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI) was joined by private equity and venture capital firm China Media Capital and VC firm Banyan Capital, which co-led the round, as well as fellow venture firms Vision Plus Capital, Youjin Capital and Joy Capital.
Founded in 2015, Danke manages almost 80,000 apartments across the cities of Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Wuhan, Nanjing and Hangzhou.
The series B proceeds will be used to grow the company’s presence in ‘first-tier’ and relatively newly developed Chinese cities, and to upgrade services such as cleaning and building maintenance. Cash will also support marketing and the strengthening of Danke’s big data technology.
Danke had raised an undisclosed eight-figure renminbi sum in a 2015 series A round before adding $14.7m in a July 2017 series A+ round led by Joy Capital that included URWork, the co-working space provider now known as Ucommune, and existing backer Kaiwuhuadeng.
Shen Boyang, formerly a vice-president of social media company LinkedIn, has recently been appointed chairman of Danke Apartment. He said: “With the support of the government’s rental policies, the long-term apartment rental market has developed rapidly.
“In the next three years, there will be two or three super unicorns with more than 1 million rooms and a valuation of more than $10bn.”