Chinese travel platform Mafengwo has raised a $250 million funding round led by Tencent Holdings Ltd.
General Atlantic, Qiming Venture Partners, Yuantai Evergreen Investment Partners, NM Strategic Focus Fund and eGarden Ventures also participated in the round.
Mafengwo will use the capital to strengthen its position in China’s online tourism economy by expanding its content offerings and by building a new AI-driven one-stop travel service platform.
The company, which began as a reviews-focused online travel community in 2010, has since grown to incorporate hotel, ground transportation and attractions bookings.
It says it has achieved a gross merchandise volume growth of more than 100% for four consecutive years.
"It has always been our mission to realize everyone's travel dream. This latest round of funding will enable us to bring more high-quality travel intelligence and efficiency to Chinese travelers when it comes to making well-informed travel decisions,” says Mafengwo co-founder and CEO Gang Chen in a statement.
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“It can also help us create better travel experiences for our consumers by offering them more creative ideas and plans.”
Says Haifeng Lin, investment and management partner of Tencent Holdings Ltd.: "Nowadays, Mafengwo has become the leader of new tourism e-commerce when online travel market has scaled up to trillion milestone.
“By virtue of the content accumulated over 10 years and the extremely strong techniques and innovation capabilities, Mafengwo has developed a successful model in the field of content e-commerce. We are pleased to support the continued rapid growth of Mafengwo's business through this round of investment. And we will fully leverage Tencent's content resources to assist Mafengwo in accomplishing a new leap forward."
In 2017, Mafengwo raised a $133 million Series D round led by General Atlantic.