Alternative Android App Store AppChina Attracts A-Round Funding

The AppChina market app.

The alternative Android app store AppChina has secured some A-round funding worth 40 million RMB (US$6.35 million). Announced today, though completed last month, the injection of funds is led by the Beijing-based Fang Group whose ‘Fang fund’ is worth US$90 million.

AppChina is an Innovation Works incubation project, and some of this funding round comes from Lee Kai-fu’s incubator as well. The site – also an Android app – is one of the country’s leading independent Android app stores, offering a different method of getting apps without having to use Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) official Market.

The AppChina site revamped itself recently – probably with help from all this new money – and unveiled some exclusive partnerships, such as its distribution of the new Android version of Zaker, the Chinese-made Flipboard clone. In addition, AppChina has a new developer site and is reaching out to the local dev community with events across the country.

The startup was founded in August 2010 and claims to have over 40,000 apps, including plenty of games. It’s not clear if all of them are licensed for distribution, or if there’s some pirated content on there – something that plagues most of the alternative app stores in the country.

You can get the mobile app store from its own AppChina page but it’s only in Chinese.

[Source: 36kr – article in Chinese]