In China, a woman with a funny voice gets $2m funding from VCs

China’s venture capitalists now seem to be looking beyond startups. That might explain why some major investors this week invested US$1.85 million in a woman who’s a viral video star.

Yes, an online celebrity.

Papi Jiang, a 29-year-old drama student turned comedian, is believed to be the first viral star to receive VC funding in the country, reports local web portal Sohu. Her rise to fame was fast – appearing out of nowhere and accumulating millions of fans across social media in just a few months.

Her most recent videos each get about 2.5 million views.

On China’s top video site, Youku, Papi has 700,000 subscribers. Her 39 videos have been viewed a total of 64 million times. She gets tens of millions more views across other streaming video sites, as well as from posting on the Twitter-esque Weibo. Her most recent videos each get about 2.5 million views on Youku. On Weibo, she has 8.1 million fans, putting her well ahead of many much more established Chinese pop stars or movie stars.

Papi’s videos – usually no more than three minutes long – are a draw for her fast-paced and squeaky voice, a little like Alvin and the Chipmunks. Her videos are self-contained skits, usually featuring her in a dialogue with herself, in quick-moving video edits. She talks about stuff young people on the web in China care about – like all the embarrassing questions that older family members ask when you go back to your hometown for Chinese New Year.

She does all the performances, the scripts, and the editing.

The investors seem to be backing the online celeb, despite the fact she’s not a startup, for her money-making potential with advertisers as well as a number of other possible avenues. While the content is comedy, the institutional investors are no joke – Zhen Fund, Lighthouse Capital, and Xingtu Capital. Zhen Fund is one of China’s most prestigious investors with over 300 startup investments in its portfolio. One of its biggest investments is Chinese drone maker Ehang. The creator of an online talk show, Luoji Siwei, also contributed some of the funds to Papi.

So long as Papi’s stardom doesn’t flicker out as quickly as it ignited, this is likely not the last VC backing we’ll see for a Chinese viral video celeb.

(Updated four hours after publishing: changed story’s first sentence.)

Converted from Chinese yuan. Rate: US$1 = RMB 6.49.