China Renaissance Private Equity Fund and West Fund, a private equity fund established by Chinese steel company Shougang Corp., have jointly led a RMB500 million (US$73 million) new funding round in steel industry e-commerce platform Zhaogang.com.
Russia-China Investment Fund also participated in the round, according to a company announcement.
It is not clear how much Zhaogang.com was valued in the new round, but the company was worth US$1 billion as of May.
Founded in 2012, Zhaogang.com is an e-commerce platform covering the whole steel industry chain. It provides steel storage and processing services, logistics and e-commerce online trading platforms. Various products such as hot rolled steel, cold-rolled steel, building material and steel plate are available for purchase on its digital portal, which records daily transaction volume of 200,000 tons of steel with over 60,000 registered active corporate buyers.
The company currently has offices in South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippine, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. With the latest fundraising, Russia-China Investment Fund will provide support for Zhaogang’s international expansion, especially in Russia.
Zhaogang.com previously raised a RMB1 billion (US$153 million) series E round from undisclosed investors in 2016, after completing a US$100 million series D round led by IDG Capital and Huasheng Capital the year before. It raised US$34.8 million in a series C round led by Bull Capital and Sequoia Capital in 2014.
Before that, it completed a series B financing round, with its fundraising value undisclosed, from Matrix Partners China and K2 Ventures in 2013, and a series A round, also with financials undisclosed, from K2 Ventures and Zhen Fund one year prior.
