Chinese travel site Mafengwo announced today it has raised US$250 million in its D+ funding round led by Tencent Holdings Ltd. The proceeds will be invested in expanding its presence in the online travel market.
The Beijing-based company revealed that investors in this round of funding included General Atlantic, Qiming Venture Partners, Yuantai Investment, NM Strategic Focus Fund and eGarden ventures.
Tianyancha.com, a Chinese corporate commercial relations information provider, earlier reported that Mafengwo completed its D+ round funding last year, boosting its valuation to $2 billion, and the investor was Tencent Industry Win-Win Fund.
Mafengwo was founded in 2010 and has become China’s largest travel community with extensive content and a large number of active users.
The nine-year-old company embarked on hotel bookings business in 2015 to expand its services scope.
“We will use the capital to augment our tourism consumption decision-making content and build a new one-stop travel service platform driven by AI and data algorithms catering to young Chinese travelers,” said Gang Chen, co-founder and CEO of Mafengwo.
Tencent’s investment in Mafengwo’s latest fundraising indicates that the travel site has become a part of Tencent's strategy in the tourism industry, and this will change the competitive landscape of the online travel market.
Fundraising History of Mafengwo
In October 2011, Mafengwo raised $5 million from Capital Today in the A round funding.
In its B round in April 2013, Mafengwo obtained $15 million from Capital Today and Qiming Venture Partners.
In the C funding round in March 2015, Mafengwo raised $85 million from Hillhouse Capital Group, Coatue Management and Qiming Venture Partners.
The D round in December 2017 fetched $133 million from General Atlantic, Ocean Link, Temasek, Yuantai Investment and Hopu.
The D+ round in October 2018 led by Tencent Holdings Ltd netted $250 million.
