AAA Fangdd looks to capture $150m in IPO

Fangdd looks to capture $150m in IPO

Fangdd Network Technology, a China-based online real estate portal backed by paper manufacturer Shanying International, filed for a $150m initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market on Tuesday.

Founded in 2011, Fangdd operates an online property database that lists more than 130 million homes for sale or rent across China. It has also built a cloud-based platform for agents with features such as client and listings management, historical transaction data and analytics tools.

The company had previously raised $223m in a 2015 series C round led by FountainVest Partners, after Vision Knight Capital’s China Fund, Lightspeed China Partners and CDH Venture Partners had supplied $80m in series B funding the year before.

CDH had already supplied $780,000 in series A funding for Fangdd in 2013. Fangdd revealed in its draft prospectus that Shanying International owns series A-2 and B shares through its Shanying Capital unit.

The company plans to use the IPO proceeds to bolster its research and development capabilities, invest in its technology and drive sales, marketing and branding activities.

Shanying owns a 5.2% stake in the company, whose largest shareholder is CC Network International, a vehicle for Fangdd co-founder, chairman and CEO Yi Duan that holds 19.8%. The company’s notable investors are FountainVest (8.2%), CDH (7.7%), Vision Knight Capital (5.7%).

Other shareholders include ZX International vehicle (9.7%), Tianyu International (7.8%), Fangdd Decent International (6.2%) and Zhouli Network International (5.1%), which respectively represent chief operating officer Xi Zeng, chief technology officer Jiancheng Li, Liqing Zeng, who is a co-founder of internet group Tencent, and Fangdd’s five co-founders.

Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Global Markets, UBS Securities, China International Capital Corporation Hong Kong Securities and AMTD Global Markets have been appointed as underwriters for the IPO.

By Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is editor-at-large of Global University Venturing and Global Corporate Venturing, and host of the Beyond the Breakthrough podcast.

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