Hotel and retail system provider Shiji Information Technology has landed a massive $486 million investment deal from Alibaba.
The Chinese ecommerce giant has taken the 38% stake in the company via its Alibaba Investment wing, in a move touted as bringing strategic retail and travel technology closer to its core business.
Shiji has been on the scene for almost 20 years but has expanded rapidly in the last decade to become a serious player in hotel information systems.
More recently, it has branched out into F&B and other tech services for retail brands, with over 3,000 employees located in sites in China as well as Singapore and Munich.
It's not the first time that Shiji has been on the receiving end of investment from Alibaba, with the company's travel business Taobao taking a 15% stake for $450 million in 2014.
The funding coincided with a string of acquisitions and investments of its own, buying property management system and hotel booking engine provider Hetras in August 2016.
This was followed by a $28 million deal from Shiji to buy a 80% stake in reputation management platform ReviewPro.
It had previously invested €25 million investment in SnapShot in July 2015.