Dingdong Maicai, a China-based grocery app developer backed by corporate investors Bertelsmann, Red Star Macalline and SoftBank, filed for an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday.
The company has set a $100m placeholder figure for the offering but is targeting $500m, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. BofA Securities, Credit Suisse Securities, Mission Capital Management and Morgan Stanley have been appointed underwriters for the offering.
Founded in 2017, Dingdong Maicai runs an on-demand marketplace that delivers products such as household items and food ingredients to customers’ premises within half an hour.
Internet and telecommunications group SoftBank Vision Fund led a $330m series D-plus round for the company last month. It had completed a $700m series D round in April this year that was co-led by investment firm DST Global and investment manager Coatue.
The April round included existing shareholders Capital Today, CMC Capital, General Atlantic, Hony Capital, Ocean Link, Sequoia Capital China and Tiger Global Management and new investors 3W Fund Management, APlus Partners, Aspex Management, Cygnus Equity and Mass Ave Global.
General Atlantic had led a $300m round for Dingdong Maicai in May 2020 at a $2bn valuation that followed a series B round of undisclosed size in mid-2019 that included Bertelsmann Asia Investments, a corporate venturing vehicle for media group Bertelsmann, as well as Capital Today, Sequoia Capital China, Tiger Fund and Qiming Venture Partners.
Furniture vendor Red Star Macalline and Fortune Capital had participated in a series A round of undisclosed size for the company in July 2018, two months before a series A-plus round backed by Gaorong Capital, which injected a similarly undisclosed amount two months later.
Founder and CEO Changlin Liang is Dingdong Maicai’s largest shareholder, owning a 15.7% stake through a vehicle called DDL Group. He also controls an entity known as EatBetter Holding, which has an 11.6% stake.
Tiger Global holds 5.7% of the company’s shares while General Atlantic and Vision Fund each own 5.6%, CMC Capital Partners 5.3% and Capital Today and DST Global 5.1% each.
