China’s 10 biggest funding rounds in 2015

Photo by: gags9999

As the year draws to a close and 2016 beckons, we take a moment to reflect on the massive, massive sums of money that were invested in China’s tech startup scene this year. Who took home most of the booty? Here’s the top ten list, according to Tech in Asia data. Can you guess who’s number one before scrolling down?

10. Lu.com, US$485 million

Sneaking its way onto the tail end of the top ten list is Lu.com, an online marketplace for financial products including P2P lending services. China’s P2P lending market exploded this year (and one Chinese P2P lender just listed on the NYSE), but Lu.com’s US$485 million series A was the biggest single investment in China’s entire online finance sector this year. The investors were undisclosed, but the site claims to have nearly 18 million registered users and to have earned those users more than RMB 7.5 billion (US$1.1 billion) to date, so it’s not hard to understand why investors were interested.

9. NextEV, US$500 million

Photo credit: Wendell Oskay

Are you excited about electric cars? So is China, and investors are showing it. Next-gen electric-car startup NextEV raised a massive US$500 million series B this year from a veritable who’s who of investors in the China tech scene: Sequoia Capital, JOY Capital, Tencent, Hillhouse Capital, Shunwei China Internet Fund (Shunwei Capital), JD.com, and Yiche.com. To the rest of us, NextEV is still a bit of a mystery, and the company’s nowhere close to having a car on the market yet. But with financial backing like this, maybe the company really can take on Tesla for a share of the electric car market.

8. Meizu, US$590 million

One of China’s many homemade smartphone startups, Meizu got a big boost in its quest against rivals early this year when it netted a US$590 million late stage investment from Alibaba. The tie-up has given Meizu access to Alibaba’s ecommerce infrastructure and customer base, but also gave Alibaba a way to get its YunOS smartphone operating system into the hands of users (Meizu has sold some YunOS phones and also used YunOS tech in its own Flyme operating system).

7. Ele.me, US$630 million

Photo credit: Qdaily

Chinese O2O food delivery startup Ele.me netted big bucks this summer when it secured a US$630 million series F round to take on rivals like Meituan, Dianping, and Baidu Waimai. The round also boasted an impressive list of investors that includes Chinese O2O taxi firm Didi Kuaidi as well as GSR Ventures, Matrix Partners China, Sequoia Capital, Dianping, BHG Mall, Tencent, CITIC Capital Holdings, JD.com, and Hualian.

6. Meituan, US$700 million

5. Dianping, US$850 million

4. Zhongan Baoxian, US$934 million

3. LY.com, US$967 million

2. Aliyun, US$1 billion

1. Didi Kuaidi, US$3 billion