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8 Startups to Watch Out in China

Musical.ly is a video social networking app that was founded by Alex Zhu and Lulu Yang in October 2014.

The Chinese startup ecosystem has been developing more rapidly and one after the other unicorns are popping up from all over the place within this emerging economy. Chinese startups are capturing valuable positions in the international market and now tops the US market in gaming, digital payments, investments, mobile device sales, online retail and many more. They are rapidly growing from one generation to another with remarkable productivity and supply chain.

BW Disrupt have curated a list of 8 startups that have gained significance in China:

MOBIKE-
Mobike is a bike- sharing mobile app founded by Yiping Xia in December, 2015. It offers users find and rent nearby bikes with cheap prices of less than US$1 per half hour of riding the orange coloured bike. It solves the last kilometre problem in which the users can park the vehicle to any public bicycle parking. On June 15, 2017, Mobike has raised $600 million in series E financing round led by Tencent Holdings, its biggest financing round to date as it seeks to expand aggressively. With the latest injection the firm, which has operations in around 100 Chinese cities, has raised over $900 million since October. It has also expanded to Singapore, and recently launched a pilot service for 1,000 bikes in the UK, starting in the cities of Manchester and Salford.

ICarbonX- ICarbonX is an artificial intelligence platform for health data company founded by Jun Wang and Yingrui Li in October 2017. ICarbonX aims to create a platform which will consist of all kinds of data including genetics information, blood samples, health-related insights and recommendation. Till now, the company has raised a total funding of $199.48M in 2 Rounds from 3 Investors including China Bridge Capital and Tencent Holdings.  In September 2016, the firm had acquired Imagu Vision Technologies. Also this year, the company invested in 3 firms -
$8.4M / Series B funding in HealthLoop, $100M in PatientsLikeMe and $30M / Series C round in AOBiome.

OFO- This urban bicycle sharing company was founded by Dai Wai in 2014. Ofo is a yellow coloured bike and said to be world’s first bike sharing company. It provides convenient level services for more than 30 million rides in 46 cities around the world. Ofo has also booked more than 100 million rides in 2017 and got funded with an undisclosed amount in April 2017 by Ant Financial. The company has raised a total funding of $580M in 3 Rounds from 10 Investors.

MUSICAL.LY- Musical.ly is a video social networking app that was founded by Alex Zhu and Lulu Yang in October 2014. The application is used for sharing, creating and discovering short videos of 15 seconds to 1 minute by using different effects, filters and speed options. In May, the application reached over 200 million registered users where they express themselves by singing, dancing, comedy and lip-syncing. The company has raised a total funding of $146.85M in 3 Rounds from 11 Investors including DCM Ventures, GGV Capital, Goodwater Capital and Greylock Partners among others.

SNOWBALL FINANCE- Snowball Finance is an internet financial service provider founded by Sanwen Fang in 2010. It focuses on investment solutions and provides investors with data queries, newsletter subscriptions, and interactive communication services. It has raised total equity funding of $53.08 million in 3 rounds from 3 investors.

XIAOZHU- Founded by Chi Chen in 2012, Xiaozhu.com is a Chinese booking website for daily rental and short-term rooms. It aims to provide a guaranteed platform for online communication and transactions for landlords and tenants. Xiaozhu is spread over 13 cities and cover more than 130 domestic cities all over the world. In November 2016, it got funded by 6 investors including Bertelsmann Asia Investment Fund with $65 million in series D round. The company has raised a total funding of $151.6M in 5 Rounds from 9 Investors so far.                                              

MAIMAI-
Maimai is a chat app and messaging software company that was founded by Fan Lin in 2013. In 2016, Maimai became employer branding hotspot for employers trying to build their brand image. Its client Alibaba is using its services as human resource solutions to maintain employer branding. It has raised total equity funding of $25 million in 2 rounds from 3 investors.

HAHAPINCHE-
Haha
Pinche is a carpooling app which was launched by Xuguang Men and Huabing Li in 2014.  Haha
Pinche provides services like vehicle information, route, schedule rides and enable payments to the car owner. It is the most successful startup in the field of carpooling to reducing China’s overcrowded roads. Users who prefer Haha
Pinche also gets free insurance from China Life. It has raised total disclosed funding of $10 million in 1 round from 2 investors.


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