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Cheyipai Completes Financing Round [Travel & Leisure Close - Up](Travel & Leisure Close - Up Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Cheyipai, an e-commerce firm for second-hand vehicles, announced that it has completed a US$50 million round of financing. According to a release, both Valentine's Day and the Chinese Lantern Festival fall on the same day and, in celebration, the firm displayed red envelopes on its official Sina Weibo and handed out love-labeled red envelopes on its Wechat and microblog, inviting members of their online audience to shout out the name of the person with whom they would most like spend this Valentine's Day. The new round of financing was led by Sequoia Capital, while Morningside, Matrix Partners, and CITIC Capital, which each took part in the previous two rounds of financing, continued their support in the new round. The new round at more than US$50 million represented the highest ever in the vehicle e-commerce segment of China. Hina Group acted as the exclusive financial advisor. Cheyipai said it took the lead in finalizing the standardized system for evaluating the performance of second-hand vehicles in 2010, starting online sales of second-hand vehicles and adopting the online-to-offline (O2O) e-commerce model for the complete transaction process. Cheyipai's annual turnover soared from 1 billion yuan (approx. US$164 million) to 5 billion yuan (approx. US$820 million) during the past two years, consolidating its industry leadership. One out of every fifty second-hand vehicles is sold via Cheyipai in China. Expectations are high that Cheyipai's turnover will grow to US$1 billion. Cheyipai noted that its competence in continuous solutions and position help to instill confidence with new and senior investors. The new round of financing was completed in only two and a half months. Due to Sequoia Capital rapid response, the strength of its commitment and the effort to support that commitment, the venture capital firm outrivaled its competitors in partnering with other VCs to become the lead investors in Cheyipai's new round of financing. Cheyipai will use the new round of financing to optimize the O2O service experience and speed up the expansion of its national network, according to the firm. ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) (c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |