(Bloomberg) — Chinese car-trading platform Chehaoduo Group is considering raising at least $100 million in a new private funding round and is also weighing a potential listing in Hong Kong, according to people familiar with the situation.
The Beijing-based firm is looking at an initial public offering as soon as late next year, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. Currently valued at about $10 billion, Chehaoduo could go for another round of fundraising closer to the IPO, they said.
Deliberations are ongoing and the IPO plans and its timing, and details such as size of the fundraising, could still change, according to the people. A representative for Chehaoduo said the information on the fundraising and IPO is “not true.”
Chehaoduo, which means “a lot of cars” in Chinese, runs online automotive retail businesses including used-car trading platform Guazi.com, which was launched in 2015, and Maodou.com, an online new-car marketplace set up in 2017.
The business had sought to raise cash last year after the coronavirus outbreak hammered the auto industry in China, studying possibilities including equity fundraising and asset-backed securities issuance, Bloomberg News reported in March 2020. Chehaoduo had also considered seeking a listing the same year.
Chehaoduo counts an array of investors including SoftBank Vision Fund, FountainVest Partners and Yunfeng Capital. In June, the firm announced that it completed a $300 million fundraising round led by H Capital, valuing the company at more than $10 billion. Chehaoduo’s founder and CEO Yang Haoyong’s personal foundation and Sequoia Capital China were among the investors in the round.
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