US supermarket chain Wal-Mart has joined a syndicate investing $500m in 360buy Jingdong Mall, a China online retailer of consumer electronics.
Started in 2004 by Qiangdong Liu, 360Buy has been growing at 300% per year and crossed RMB1.2bn in sales in 2008, a year after its $10m first venture capital backing by Capital Today. It forecast RMB10.2bn ($1.5bn) in revenues this year.
Wal-Mart’s has also backed 1-800-Contacts, a contact lens retailer, and Green Dot, a web-based payments and financial company.