Short-form video platform developer Kuaishou has filed for an initial public offering that would enable internet groups Tencent and Baidu to exit, South China Morning Post reported yesterday.
The company plans to list its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and has not disclosed how much it aims to raise in the offering, though sources told Reuters two months ago it would seek up to $5bn at a $50bn valuation.
Kuaishou runs an online short-form video platform with some 776 million monthly active users and an average of 302 million daily active users in the past six months, according to figures in the IPO’s draft prospectus.
The proceeds from the offering have been earmarked for research and development, and Kuaishou is planning to diversify its livestreaming revenue through activities such as e-commerce business, online gaming and knowledge sharing.
The company increased its revenue about 48% to about $3.8bn in the first half of 2020. Bank of America, China Renaissance and Morgan Stanley are joint sponsors for the offering.
Venture capital firms Sequoia Capital China and DCM Ventures supplied $10m for Kuaishou in 2014 before Baidu and investment firm China Media Capital co-led a round two years later at a reported valuation of $2bn.
Tencent led a $350m round for Kuaishou in 2017 that reportedly valued it between $18bn and $20bn, and provided $2bn to lead its $3bn series F round in December 2019.
The December round, which valued the company at approximately $28.6bn, also featured Sequoia China, Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek and private equity firms Boyu Capital and Yunfeng Capital.
