Yeahka, a China-based payment services provider backed by corporates Recruit and Tencent, is planning to raise roughly $300m in an initial public offering, Bloomberg reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company filed an application to float on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on November 12, the sources said. The filing states that CLSA, Nomura Holdings and ABC International Holdings are the joint sponsors of the proposed offering.
Founded in 2011, Yeahka has built a payment technology platform that allows payments to be made or received using QR codes.
The company was the second largest non-bank QR code payment service in China by market share as of 2018 and had 4.8 million customers as of June this year.
Yeahka co-founder and chairman Liu Yingqi had previously been general manager of internet group Tencent’s online payment platform, TenPay, and Tencent invested an undisclosed amount in Yeahka in 2012.
Other investors in Yeahka include venture capital firms Infinity Ventures and Greycroft Partners as well as – according to the IPO filing – human resources firm Recruit. Greycroft invested in the company in 2015 according to its website.
