Tencent-backed Chinese SaaS startup nets $120m round from Hillhouse, GGV, others

Chinese business services platform XiaoETong has secured US$120 million in a series D round from investors including Hillhouse Capital, IDG Capital, GGV Capital, and Qiming Venture Partners. The latest investment builds upon the startup’s series C round, which was completed in October 2020 and featured backing from Tencent.

XiaoETong co-founder Fan Xiaoxing / Photo credit: XiaoETong

Founded in 2016, Shenzhen-based XiaoETong offers a suite of digital tools to coordinate brand marketing, digital traffic, and sales channels, with a focus on the WeChat ecosystem. The company aims to provide enterprises with a one-stop platform to manage their digital operations.

“XiaoETong’s goal is to serve as a bridge between enterprises and users to create a shared digital CTO for businesses,” Fan Xiaoxing, the company’s co-founder and chief operating officer told 36Kr.

The firm will allocate its fresh funds toward improving its product by strengthening research and development capabilities as well as recruiting operational talent. It has more than 1.6 million registered customers to date.

Some of XiaoETong’s notable enterprise clients in China include New Oriental Education, Tencent University, DJI, and China Asset Management.

Using XiaoETong’s platform, the startup’s enterprise clients have created 20 million new proprietary business processes or products, reaching a total of 780 million end users.

While adding localized service teams to aid clients in various sectors, Xiaoetong also offers training programs for client firms’ employees on how to optimize the use of WeChat’s range of communication, brand marketing, and ecommerce tools. The platform covers other increasingly popular publishing channels as well, like short-video apps Douyin and Kuaishou.

“XiaoETong started out as a tool for content publishing but stuck to its vision of becoming a trusted virtual CTO for clients. This helped the company seize opportunities in areas like the WeChat ecosystem, private domain traffic, and livestreaming. As XiaoETong continues to expand, we can see many companies using its products to innovate from the bottom up and we look forward to watching the team continue to enable enterprises to realize their digital transformation,” IDG Capital partner Niu Kuiguang told 36Kr.

This report was first published on KrAsia.