China Digest: GL Ventures backs Sobot; Daoer to raise $75m; Xiaohongshu mulls US IPO
Summary
Chinese cloud-based intelligent customer service startup Sobot Technologies and Daoer Biologics have raised funds, while Xiaohongshu is reportedly mulling an IPO. Beijing-based Sobot leverages AI and big data to help clients integrate and manage their call centres, chatbots, manual customer services, and work order systems. Daoer announced in November 2020 the completion of nearly 100 million yuan in a Series A+ round led by private equity (PE) firm Huarui Investment, followed by Haiyue Asset Management and existing shareholders Kaitai Capital and Hangzhou Bairui. The update followed a March report from The Information, in which the media outlet said that Xiaohongshu hired Ruo Yang, Citigroup’s Hong Kong-based managing director, to serve as its CFO and is considering going public in the US this year. Founded in 2013, Xiaohongshu has developed into one of the most popular apps among China’s young generations with over 100 million monthly active users (MAUs), its co-founder Miranda Qu said at a public speech in late October 2020.