Alibaba’s biggest investments of 2015

When Alibaba invests, it invests big. None of this softball million-dollar crap. If the sums aren’t in the hundreds of millions – or even billions – of dollars, it’s barely worth Jack Ma getting out of bed.

Alibaba has been investing left and right in 2015. Even limiting our scope to disclosed investments that broke the US$100 million dollar mark, we’re not left with a short list. But these deals were certainly worth Jack not hitting snooze on his alarm.

Mei.com

$100+ million

In July, Alibaba shoved more than US$100 million into the pockets of Mei.com, an ecommerce platform focusing on flash sales of luxury and fashion goods.

According to a statement released at the time, a team within Alibaba’s Tmall will help Mei.com expand its user base, logistics, and product offerings. Mei.com has connections with international luxury brands like Longchamp, Armani, and Zegna.

SoftBank Robotics

$118 million, matched by Foxconn

SoftBank’s “emotional robot” named Pepper must have caught Alibaba’s attention when it was unveiled in June of 2014. One year later, Alibaba announced that it was throwing US$118 million into SoftBank’s robotics program.

The investment was joined by another US$118 million coming from Foxconn, Pepper’s manufacturer. SoftBank is hardly strapped for cash – check out our 2015 list of SoftBank’s notable investments here – but these ties with Alibaba could be extremely helpful if the company decides to bring its robotics into mainland China.

Kabam

$120 million

Alibaba snagged a 10 percent stake in the American mobile gaming company Kabam in January, for a mean US$120 million.

Kabam has been responsible for a number of games, most notably those with movie tie-ins like The Hobbit and Fast and Furious. The company is based in San Francisco, but has had a China presence for some time. That presence will likely expand as Kabam takes advantage of Alibaba’s massive China network for its future releases.

Yueke

$134 million

SingPost

Jet.com

Shanghai Media Group (China Business News)

Snapchat

South China Morning Post Group

58 Daojia

Whaley

Snapdeal

The “Alibaba of India” is now ever more so thanks to a hefty investment from the original Alibaba itself. An August fundraising round saw Snapdeal rake in US$500 million from the combined forces of Alibaba, SoftBank, and Foxconn.

Meizu

Kuaidi Dache

One97 (Paytm)

Suning

Youku Tudou