Former Huawei exec raises $100M angel round for his new ecommerce venture

A former executive at Chinese smartphone and telecom equipment provider Huawei unveiled his new ecommerce venture at Beijing’s annual Global Mobile Internet Conference yesterday. Liu Jiangfeng, who spent 19 years at Huawei and rose to become the president of the company’s Glory smartphone division, says he has already secured US$100 million in angel funding, according to Sina Tech. If true, that could make it the largest angel round ever in China.

Liu’s startup is called Dmall, a hyperlocal shopping app connected with large supermarkets. Within the service radius of each location, Dmall promises one-hour delivery to customers. The service radius is one to two kilometers. Each supermarket controls its own pricing, distribution, and delivery team.

Essentially, Dmall turns supermarkets into inventory warehouses. A single app will detect the user’s location and show them the stock of whichever supermarkets are in range. It’s particularly aimed at delivering fresh food products – something that more traditional ecommerce retailers and marketplaces struggle with.

Dmall is currently in closed beta, with trial operations set for May in Beijing. Expansion to Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and other cities is scheduled for later this year. Dmall has so far established a partnership with at least one major supermarket chain called Wumart, which is sort of like a knock-off Wal-Mart.

To gain early traction, the app will offer free delivery on all orders over RMB 59 (US$9.50).

On stage at GMIC, Liu said China has about 4,000 ecommerce companies. One percent of them make a profit, 4 percent break even, and 95 percent are in a deficit. He says he fully understands the difficulty of competing with giants like Alibaba and JD in the ecommerce space, but there’s still a lot of room to grow in China.

Food delivery startups have been taking off left and right in China. Beequick, a food and drink delivery startup that sources from local convenience stores, secured a US$20 million series B round of funding led by Hillhouse Capital with participation from Sequoia Capital. Nanjing-based franchise restaurant delivery app Line0 closed a US$30 million series B investment led by Tencent and followed by Sequoia Capital and Gobi Partners. Other startups with similar models include Instacart in the US and Zopnow in India.

(Source: Sina Tech)