MMB, an m-commerce retailer targeting at rural China markets, announced that it secured a new round of financing led by Tencent and followed by chip maker MTK and Sequoia Capital. MMB has received a combined more than 400 million yuan (around US$65 million) of funding from Far East Holding, Sequoia Capital and Tencent during 2007 to 2012.
Founded in 2006 as one of the earliest players in Chinese m-commerce sector, MMB isdedicated to provide online shopping service to grassroots users, who live in third- and fourth-tier cities or farmer-turned workers in big cities. Unlike users in cities who have access through PCs in the daytime at work or at night at home, MMB’s users made purchases through its WAP site on low-end mobile phones that are connected to 2G and more recently with 3G networks. The annual turnover of the company neared 2 billion yuan in 2013.
The company did not announce the amount of the funding, but people familiar with the matter disclosed that the capital injection exceeds 100 million dollars, as reported by Sohu.
The funds will be used in the development of its homegrown low-budget smartphone brand Big Q and the warehouses system around the country, moreover, the company will increase investments in product development and marketing.
Launched in June 2013, MMB’s Big Q smartphone brand currently has three models and targets at young users from small cities. The third generation of the product dubbed Q1 was launched on Tencent’s e-commerce platform Yixun earlier this year. The shipment of Big Q smartphone stood at around 200K last year and it is expected to reach 1 million sets this year, according to the company.
image credit: MMB
