Meiweibuyongdeng, the China-based creator of an app that enables restaurants to manage their bookings, has raised an undisclosed amount in a series C+ round co-led by e-commerce firm Alibaba, China Money Network reported yesterday.
Koubei, Alibaba’s local services subsidiary, co-led the round with asset management firm Zhongzhi Capital. The funding valued the company at RMB3bn ($433m).
Meiweibuyongdeng has developed an app that enables restaurants with long queues to issue customers with booking numbers, meaning they can go elsewhere and be notified when a table is ready.
The platform has been used by some 60,000 restaurants across 200 Chinese cities. Meiweibuyongdeng’s app has been downloaded more than 10 million times and its account on messaging platform WeChat has about 20 million followers.
Also known as 9Now, Meiweibuyongdeng secured $79m in an October 2015 series C round featuring internet company Baidu, venture capital firm Matrix Partners and Dianping, the local services reviews platform that merged with group buying firm Meituan shortly afterwards.
Matrix Partners had supplied an undisclosed amount of series A funding to Meiweibuyongdeng as part of a 2013 series A round before joining private equity and VC firm Tiantu Capital for a $20m series B round the following year.