SingTel Innov8 the venture capital fund the size of $200m, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SingTel Group has participated in the Series A round of Guanxi, a Cayman-based mobile social network services (SNS) company. There was also investment from Timothy Draper of Draper and Associates, founder of venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvestson. No other finacial information was disclosed.
Guanxi recently completed its spin-off from mInfo Inc, a leading Chinese mobile search and marketing provider.
Guanxi operates the Guanxi.me SNS platform consisting of smartphone apps, mobile-web services, SMS services and web-based backend management systems. The platform enables users to see and interact with people and places around them, and intelligently notifies them when relevant people or offers are nearby.
Guanxi plans to use the new funds to build up a carrier-grade operating platform, grow its user-base and expand into markets beyond China.
CEO and Founder of Guanxi, Alvin Wang Graylin commented: “For thousands of years, Guanxi is the term used to describe the key social model in Asia. Guanxi.me applies that concept and has adapted it for the modern world. Unlike other social networks, we are focused on using advanced mobile technology to increase and enhance face-to-face contact between our users, not replace it. We are excited about Guanxi’s promise of a more intelligent and automated mobile social networking user experience,” said William Bao Bean, Managing Director at SingTel Innov8. “We look forward to supporting Guanxi’s geographic expansion of their innovative solution into the various markets the SingTel Group operates in.”