Tencent funded Meituan-Dianping files for IPO.
China’s popular all-in-one app Meituan-Dianping filed for an IPO in Hong Kong stock exchange during early trading hours on Monday. Through this public issue, the Tencent backed startup reportedly aims to raise nearly $4 billion at market valuation of approximately $60 billion. Meituan-Dianping has so far refused to comment on reports about its IPO filing.
Meituan-Dianping was valued at almost $30 billion during its previous fundraising round last year. Several Industry insiders claim that it would be difficult for the Beijing headquartered startup to raise public capital at eye-popping valuation of $60 Bn, considering that it is still far from achieving breakeven and continues to burn heavy cash to run day-to-day operation.
Meituan-Dianping was created in 2015 after a merge between Alibaba backed Meituan and Tencent funded Dianping. This was probably one of the biggest mergers in China’s startup ecosystem and the one that brought two of the fiercest rivals (Alibaba & Tencent) on one platform. However, Alibaba soon exited from the newly merged entity to focus on its own O2O delivery app Koubei and Ele.me.
Today Meituan-Dianping claims to be the world’s largest 020 delivery platform, clocking almost 10 million daily orders on daily basis. By branding itself as a ‘super app,’ it allows subscribers to book movie tickets, restaurant reservations, cab services, spa & saloon appointment among other services. Earlier this year, it made quite a buzz after acquiring bicycle sharing platform Mobike for $2.7 Bn. The startup has also announced that it will soon launch its own cab hailing services to take on the incumbent market leader Didi Chuxing.
Meituan-Dianping’s IPO has come closely on the heels of Chinese smartphone major Xiaomi’s IPO filing last week. Through this IPO, Xiaomi is aiming to raise nearly $6 bn, making it one of the world’s biggest ever IPO.
