Chinese online literature platform Cloudary has raised $110 million through private placements from Goldman Sachs and Singapore investment company Temasek Holdings, the company announced today.
Cloudary said it would use the funding primarily to enhance its incentive scheme for writers, secure commercially-valuable literary content, develop and promote its mobile Internet applications, as well as upgrade its technology and infrastructure. The company noted that it would also consider making strategic investments and acquisitions for further expansion.
Cloudary CEO Xiaoqiang Hou said that the e-literature industry is becoming “increasingly competitive”, but having Goldman Sachs and Temasek on board is no doubt a boost:
With the additional, highly value-added resources and strategic partners we obtained from these fundraising and strategic collaborative activities, Cloudary is now even better positioned to respond to the increasingly competitive landscape of online literature industry, an industry Shanda Group pioneered ten years ago.
The company, which is a subsidiary of Shanda — one of China’s largest Internet companies and a powerhouse of online gaming — was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Shanghai, China.
According to a Bloomberg report, the investment by Goldman Sachs and Temasek took place at a 25 percent lower valuation than in a previous funding round, and the private placement values Cloudary at about $600 million, less than an earlier valuation of $800 million. The company had filed for an IPO in the US more than two years ago, but its share sale has yet to kick off.
The e-book industry in China is set to heat up, with Amazon finally launching its Kindle devices for sale in the country last month, after it quietly launched Chinese versions of its Kindle apps for iOS and Android last year, as well as a localized Kindle electronic bookstore.
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