Hony Capital, one of China’s largest private equity funds, has invested $50 million in cloud and mobile commerce enabling firm Deem, which recently under went recapitalization financing led by Point Guard Ventures along with various mutual funds. Deem connects a network of over 17,000 buyers and sellers across a variety of services.
“We are very excited to have led this financing and believe that Deem has the potential to become one of the world’s most important Commerce and SaaS companies,” said John Zhao, CEO of Hony Capital in a released statement. “Over the past two years as it exited the financial services vertical and focused on its core business, Deem has slashed operating expenses, introduced market-leading products, grown revenue and positioned itself for global domination. There is simply no other company
Deem will use the new funding to expand and acquire globally.
Hony, is backed by Legend Holdings, a quasi-government conglomerate that also owns Lenovo. Hony is known for a more sophisticated Western approach in investing than its Chinese peers, reports the Wall Street Journal.
The new buy into San Francisco-based follows Hony’s purchase of London-based restaurant chain Pizza Express for $1.54 billion. The private equity fund has recently been pushing for a larger international presence—though one that CEO Zhao says is mainly focused on helping fulfill China’s broader economic needs.
“China, in the last 20, 30 years, being busy becoming the world’s factory, has not done enough to produce brands, technology, service that could satisfy domestic requirements,” he reportedly told The Journal. “We like to acquire and invest in these global brands, bring them to China and build growing businesses.”
“What’s Hot” is aggregated content. PYMNTS.com claims no responsibility for the accuracy of the content published by the original source.
