China gets a new unicorn as Rakuten takes stake in discount estore Fanli

Japanese ecommerce titan Rakuten this morning announced that it’s taken a less-than-10 percent stake in Chinese online shopping discounts site Fanli. It comes in the form of an undisclosed amount of series C funding into the startup. The announcement states that Fanli is now valued at approximately US$1 billion, making it China’s newest startup unicorn.

Fanli is a very minor player among the dozens of well-established ecommerce stores in China, but it claims to be the largest that focuses on rebate-based loyalty shopping. It connects shoppers with discounts on an array of third-party stores, such as Alibaba’s Taobao, JD, Ctrip, and the Apple online store.

Rakuten stated in a press release that the stake in Fanli is essentially a strategic way to tie the Chinese startup to Rakuten’s duo of US-based discount stores, Ebates.cn and Extrabux. Rakuten acquired Ebates – which allows Chinese shoppers to buy things from US ecommerce sites with discounts – last September for US$1 billion. As part of this investment, Kevin Johnson, CEO of Ebates, will join Fanli’s board of directors.

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“This investment in Fanli reflects Rakuten and Ebates’ ongoing interest in the rapidly evolving Chinese market,” said Johnson. “As the market continues to mature we believe consumers will demand world-class shopping experiences. Rakuten and Ebates hope to support Fanli’s vision of fulfilling this role and exploring potential collaborations in China and abroad.”

Rakuten has long struggled to find a foothold in China up against homegrown rivals like Alibaba and JD. Rakuten’s own China joint-venture store with Baidu was shuttered in 2012.