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San Francisco-based electric scooter giant Lime is creating its advanced rider assistance system (ARAS) technology, which will leverage cameras to detect when users are riding on the sidewalk through an in-house-built computer vision platform. Lime will pilot the tech on close to 400 scooters in San Francisco and Chicago starting early to mid-August and might expand to six cities by the end of this year. IDG Capital joined Lime's Series A funding round in 2017.
IDG Capital has led a Series A round of $100-million financing in Xpeng Robotics, a bionic robot maker affiliated with Xpeng, a Guangzhou-based electric vehicle (EV) company also backed by IDG Capital. Founded in 2016, Xpeng Robotics’s first product is a quadruped robot that can navigate autonomously and interact with humans. The funding will allow Xpeng Robotics to deepen its R&D investment in robotic hardware and software, hire “top-tier talent,” and accelerate product development and iteration.
Olympique Lyonnais, a French professional football club backed by IDG Capital, has completed a takeover deal with US businessman John Textor through minority shareholders, including IDG Capital. Previously, IDG Capital took a 20 percent stake in Olympique Lyonnais for $110 million in 2016.
Farfetch, a London-based online luxury fashion platform, now allows customers to access their crypto wallet and purchase goods using one of seven cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Binance Coin. Crypto payments will be accepted from its top-tier “private clients” in the coming months, ahead of a wider rollout in the US, UK, and Europe. In 2016, IDG Capital led Farfetch's Series F funding round. Farfetch went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2018 with a valuation of $5.8 billion.
IDG Capital has led an A round of financing totaling over $15 million in X-MAGTECH, a Beijing-based quantum sensing company. X-MAGTECH has taken a lead in developing atomic magnetometer magneto cardiograms for the accurate diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases in China and obtained the first medical device registration certificate for such products in the country. The company’s annual production capacity has exceeded 1,000 units. The company aims to continue to expand its R&D investment with this round of financing while also accelerating the listing of other products
OPay, a Nigerian mobile payments firm, has announced a strategic partnership with Mastercard. OPay customers from countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria, and the UAE will benefit from Mastercard’s virtual payment solution linked to their OPay wallets. Launched in 2018, OPay’s active users have grown to 15 million in dozens of markets in which it operates. The company processes millions of transactions per day on average. IDG Capital, which was also previously a pre-IPO investor in OPay's parent company, led a $50 million investment round in the firm.
IDG Capital has exclusively invested in Shanghai Weimu Medical, a high-end interventional medical device platform based on innovative materials in the fields of tumor intervention and pan-vascular intervention. Two of Weimu Medical’s core medical products have completed the first patient enrollment. The founder, Dr. Xie Dang, with nearly 15 years of experience in the field of polymer materials, served in prestigious domestic and foreign leading companies such as 3M and Hengrui Pharma.
Singapore-based crypto exchange KuCoin raised $150 million in a funding round, joined by IDG Capital. KuCoin said it will use the funds to expand beyond centralized trading services and grow its presence in Web3, the next generation of the internet that runs on blockchains. The capital will also be used to enhance KuCoin’s Ethereum-based public blockchain. Previously, IDG Capital co-led KuCoin's $20 million Series A round.
Cross-border fashion e-commerce company SHEIN is now the most downloaded application in the United States, surpassing other powerhouses like TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and even Amazon. Currently, Shein provides more than 600,000 products to more than 220 countries and regions across Europe, North America, the Middle East and South Asia. Bloomberg revealed earlier that the company’s valuation is expected to reach $100 billion. IDG Capital joined Shein's Series B round.
Gentle Monster and Moncler Genius, two fashion brands backed by IDG Capital, have joined forces to launch a collection of futuristic eyewear and outerwear designs. In celebration of the partnership, Gentle Monster and Moncler have launched a pop-up space in Gentle Monster’s HAUS DOSAN flagship in Seoul. The collection is displayed in immersive installations that blend the physical and digital worlds together. IDG Capital was an early investor in Moncler, which went public in Milan in 2013, and also invested in Gentle Monster.
IDG Capital has joined a $45million angel and angel+ rounds of financing of Flywheel Digits, a China-based cloud-native real-time database supplier. Flywheel Digits was founded in December 2021 by Lian Linjiang, former general manager of Baidu Smart Cloud Big Data and Video Cloud. As an open-source technology company, the startup will work on Apache Doris (Incubating), a real-time OLAP (on-Line Analytic Processing) database, and work with developers in the open-source community to enhance its international reach.
IDG-backed solar energy company Gaojing has received $251 million in a Series A round of financing to speed up the construction of photovoltaic (PV) silicon wafers production facilities. IDG Capital also participated in this round. Founded in 2019, Gaojing focuses on the R&D and manufacturing of high-efficiency, large-sized silicon wafers that leverage PV technology to generate electricity when exposed to light. “IDG Capital has a strong belief that Gaojing will help promote the development of the PV industry and realize the adoption of larger-scale, lower-cost products,” said IDG Capital partner Yu Xinhua.
Forbes has named IDG Capital's Young Guo (#69) and Xiaojun Li (#80) again to its Midas List, an annual ranking of the world's top 100 tech capitalists. Young retains his place with his early investment in cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and autonomous vehicle startups, including Zoox, acquired by Amazon for $1 billion-plus in 2020, and Pony.ai, which reached an $8.5 billion valuation in March 2022. Xiaojun retains his place with his investment in smartphone maker Xiaomi, live tutoring app Yuanfudao and insurtech firm Waterdrop.
IDG Capital has led investment rounds in FlowUs, a one-stop digital information management SaaS software. Founded in 2021, FlowUs provides a one-stop digital information management solution for individuals and enterprises. Its products are positioned as a new generation of productivity tools that integrate functions such as documents, multidimensional tables, and folders. The proceeds will be used in product optimization and the development of its core functionality.
London-based online luxury fashion platform Farfetch has invested $200 million in traditional fashion retail company Neiman Marcus Group, which will use the proceeds to enhance its omnichannel performance. Farfetch currently owns 6% of the total $68 billion online personal luxury goods market. With this new partnership, Farfetch further raises its status in multi-brand retail after a year of supporting Harrods’ e-commerce strategies. In 2016, IDG Capital led Farfetch's Series F funding round.
Bilibili, an IDG Capital-backed Chinese video-sharing platform, introduced a new earphone brand called Bilipods with a first product launch, as the company attempts to expand its business in the consumer electronic market. Targeting the mid to low-end market, the newly released earphones support high-resolution audio with Bluetooth. Users can also enjoy special UI animation effects while watching videos on Bilibili. IDG Capital led Bilibili's Series A funding round and joined its A+ and B rounds.