Hainan Golden Raises $141M In Funding Round Led By Tencent

Hainan Golden Technology Co. announced that it has raised ¥1 billion ($141 million USD) in a Series B funding round, led by Chinese tech giant Tencent. Shenzhen Capital Group Co., CDH Investments, China Investment Corp. and China Finance Fund — as well as existing investors Hillhouse Capital, Wanda Group, Prometheus Capital and IDG Capital — all participated in the funding round.

Hainan Golden already closed ¥1 billion in a Series A funding round from CDH Investments, IDG Capital and Hillhouse Capital last year, as well as ¥200 million in an angel round in 2017, according to China Money Network. Founded that same year as a subsidiary of Tencent, Hainan Golden provides solutions to businesses — including catering, hospitality, retail and property management, with clients such as Didi Chuxing, China Unicom, China Telecom, China Mobile and FedEx.

The company also has an eInvoicing platform, WeTax, which uses blockchain technology to combine the issuing, receiving, preserving and verifying of invoices into one system. Hainan Golden plans to use the new funds to further invest in blockchain, and create a WeChat mini program for the transportation industry. In addition, Hainan Golden revealed that the ETC assistant, its platform for toll transactions, already has 30 million users, which is 20 percent of the national total.

Tencent founded Hainan Golden after the Chinese government called for the use of eInvoicing in 2015. Four billion eInvoicing bills were issued last year, and that number is expected to reach 54.5 billion in 2022. Last year, China Merchants Bank (CMB) announced that it had become the first bank in the country to issue blockchain electronic invoices. In March, the country revealed that it had issued its first blockchain-based electronic invoice for a subway ride.

The invoice, issued at the Futian Station of the Shenzhen Metro, was developed by the Shenzhen Municipal Taxation Bureau with the help of Tencent. The system has already issued more than 1 million electronic subway invoices, totaling up to ¥1.33 billion.