Yo mama is so funded: Mom’s ecommerce and social site in China gets $100M

Lamabang, a Chinese social network and ecommerce company for mothers and soon-to-be mothers, announced today it completed a US$100 million series C round of funding from Matrix Partners, Morningside Ventures, and Greenwoods Asset Management, according to 36kr.

Lamabang, which literally translates to "hot mom help", announced its US$20 million series B round in July. Matrix, Morningside, and Greenwoods were listed among that round’s investors as well. Its series A round came less than a year before that.

Lamabang targets women at four different stages in their journey to parenthood: pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, childbirth, and early parenting. The original Lamabang website is a web portal with articles, forums, and a Weibo-style social network complete with a news feed. More than just parenting, topics range from fashion to healthcare to lifestyle.

The startup makes a social app for monitoring pregnancy called Pregnancy Companion, which lets women monitor their diet, post pictures of their baby bellies, and interact with other expectant mothers.

Lamabang’s ecommerce arm is two-fold. Lamahui is a fairly traditional estore with products for babies and moms. Lamall is a daily deals site with products only available for a limited time. This is an effective way to sell imported baby formula and diapers, which are in limited supply in China and often sell out quickly. 36kr reports Lamall, which launched in September last year, makes over RMB 50 million (US$8 million) turnover per month. The web portal and app help drive traffic to Lamall and Lamahui.

The latest round of financing will be put toward product development and marketing.

China’s baby market could be worth more than RMB 2 trillion (US$327 billion) this year, double what it was in 2011. As the government’s one-child policy eases restrictions on the number of children a family can have, the market is ripe for opportunity with 16 million babies born in the country each year.

Lamabang is up against a full roster of ecommerce rivals in China including Miyabaobei, Beibei, Niaobushi, Suning’s Redbaby, and VE.cn. In January, Beibei reportedly raised an equal amount – US$100 million – in its series C round from Capital Today and New Horizon.

(Source: 36kr)