Hangzhou-based Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group has invested US$215 million in U.S. video messaging service provider Tango, according to media reports.
The investment is part of a US$280 million series C funding round for Tango. Aside from Alibaba, Tango’s existing investors including Access Industries, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang also participated.
After the transaction, Alibaba will take a minority stake of the firm. The size of the stake was not disclosed.
Reports indicate that the investment values Tango at close to US$1 billion. If so, Alibaba’s stake could be somewhere between 20% and 25%.
Michael Zeisser, Alibaba’s chairman of U.S. investments, will join Tango’s board of directors as part of the deal.
Mountain View, California-based Tango previously received US$87 million in two rounds of funding from Access Industries, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Qualcomm Ventures and Jerry Yang.
The deal is expected to help Alibaba strengthen its own messaging service platform called Lai Wang.
Founded in 2010, Tango offers a free video messaging service. It currently has over 200 million registered users and 70 million active users worldwide.
Alibaba recently announced plans for a U.S. IPO which could value the company at around US$200 billion, making it one of the most biggest technology companies in the world.
