Wanda E-commerce, the China-based joint venture formed by conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group and diversified internet companies Tencent and Baidu, has secured RMB 1bn ($160.8m) from two new investors, it revealed today.
The funding was provided by networking technology provider Centec Networks and private equity firm Xude Rendao on December 29th.
Centec took a 3% stake in the venture, paying about $96m, while Xude Rendao paid about $65m for a 2% stake. The funding values Wanda E-commerce at just over $3.2bn, taking into account the total investment planned for the entity by its shareholders over the next five years.
Founded in August 2014 through an $814m investment by Tencent, Baidu and Wanda Group, the latter of which put up 70% of the cash, Wanda E-commerce aims to become the world’s largest online-to-offline e-commerce company
The entity plans to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2015, when it will seek to raise further funding, possibly at a new valuation. It has already agreed to partner with online payment platform 99Bill, through a reported $322m investment by Wanda Group last week.