China-based online pharmacy Dingdang Kuaiyao secured RMB1bn ($150m) yesterday in a series B-plus round featuring vehicles for telecommunications and internet group SoftBank and pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm, South China Morning Post reported.
Softbank China and Sinopharm-CICC Capital, a joint venture between Sinopharm and investment manager China International Capital Corporation, joined other existing investors including financial services firm China Merchants Bank’s CMB International unit in the round.
Dingdang operates an online pharmacy that offers sub-30 minute delivery of medication through certain distances 24 hours a day. It has partnerships in place with more than 600 pharmaceutical companies.
Although the company operates brick-and-mortar pharmacies across 10 Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, it said its online deliveries have increased by between 700% and 800% since January this year as the coronavirus pandemic restricts movement.
Yang Wenlong, founder and CEO of Dingdang told the Post: “The new round of funding will be mainly used to accelerate the company’s rollout in China’s urban areas, by expanding its service to 10 more cities in mainland China by the end of this year, and covering all of China’s first, second and third-tier cities in 2021,”.
The company received $44.6m in series A financing from venture capital firm Tongdao Capital in 2016, and a nine-digit renminbi amount from SoftBank China Venture Capital (SCVC) in early 2018.
SCVC and Sinopharm-CICC Capital both participated in Dingdang’s $89m series B round in March 2019, investing together with CMB International.
