China-based online streaming platform Douyu plans to raise up to $700m in an initial public offering that would allow internet group Tencent to exit, the Financial Times reported yesterday.
The company had initially favoured Hong Kong for the IPO but is now looking to the US for an offering expected to raise between $600m and $700m, according to bankers familiar with the matter.
Douyu operates an online livestreaming platform that covers a wide range of topics including cookery demonstrations and outdoor activities, though its largest area concerns gaming and in particular eSports contest.
The platform had 30 million daily active users as of the end of 2017, according to Douyu. Its last funding was a $630m investment by Tencent in March this year that valued the company at $2.4bn according to the South China Morning Post.
Tencent had already invested $61.5m in Douyu as part of a $100m series B round in early 2016 that also featured game developer Zeus Interactive and existing investors Sequoia Capital China and Nanshan Capital.
Douyu secured $227m in a series C round the same year that was co-led by Tencent and Phoenix Capital and backed by Shenzhen Capital Group and China’s National SME Development Fund.
The company added $150m in an early 2017 round led by financial services group CMB International, according to online media platform Sohu.
Another China-based livestreaming platform, Huya, raised $180m when it went public in the US in May this year, floating at the top of its range.