Chinese news outlet 36Kr reported that Helios (or Huilianyi), a business travel and expense management SaaS platform, had received 300 million yuan (USD 42 million) in its C+ round of financing, in which China Renaissance’s New Economy Fund was the lead investor, while existing shareholders Softbank China Capital, Blue Lake Capital and Z Capital also took part. Yiren Capital was the exclusive financial advisor.
The Shanghai-based company has picked up 100 million yuan in its series C round of financing in December 2018. Prior to that, it has raised 50 million yuan in its B round of financing in March.
Helios is an incubation project of Hand Enterprise Solutions, a long-standing brand in China that offers IT system support to firms in the manufacturing, finance, trading, e-commerce and media industries. Established in 2016, Helios is a one-stop corporate travel service platform covering the entire business travel expense management process, from spending to reimbursement, cost control and accounting.
Helios has also provided business travel solutions to thousands of enterprises such as Trip.com Group, Didi Chuxing and JD.com to digitalize the expense reimbursement process.
The company has been expanding globally since 2019, venturing to Japan with new brand Spendia in last April.
Last month, another Chinese corporate expense management startup Fenbeitong has also secured $36 million in its B+ round of financing led by Silicon Valley-based fintech venture firm Ribbit Capital and Paul Hudson’s growth equity firm Glade Brook Capital.
Established in 2016, Fenbeitong claims to have served over 1,000 medium and large-sized domestic enterprises, among them hot pot restaurant chain Haidilao, medical aesthetic information provider So-Young, New York-listed apartment rental operator Danke Apartment, and Kingsoft Cloud, the cloud services division of Chinese software firm Kingsoft. (Translated by Elena)
