NetEase Cloud Music, a Chinese online music platform has recently completed its Series A fundraising worth RMB750 million (about US$108 million).
The round was led by Shanghai Media Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Radio and Television Station of Shanghai, with participation from Mango Cultural and Creative Industry Private Equity Fund and CICC Jiatai Fund.
Post-investment, the financing will value NetEase Cloud Music at RMB 8 billion (about US$1.16 billion), boosting the company to unicorn status four years after its launch.
Founded in April 2013, NetEase Cloud Music is the music and radio arm of China’s leading internet technology company NetEase Inc. The platform allows users to stream or download music and albums online.
The company claims to have currently reached 300 million users from 100 million in 2015 and 200 million in the following year. Its revenue comes from membership fees, sales of digital albums, online advertisements, and branded products such as toys, notebooks, and cups.
NetEase Cloud Music CEO Zhu Yiwen said that the funding will be used for enhancing user experience, developing a healthy patent system and establishing a solution for upstream and downstream music to provide users with quality music
The company also plans to increase its investment on content through obtaining more copyrights and signing more independent studios and singers in order to provide users with abundant resources of high quality music.
In addition to the capital itself, the deal would also put the music streaming service in content partnership with SMG and Mango, two comprehensive culture groups with extensive resources in music talent shows, movies, variety show, music and more.
NetEase Cloud Music is a latecomer in the field and it competes with Tencent-backed QQ Music and Alibaba-backed Kugou.
By Vivian Foo, VCNewsNetwork
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