WeTrade Platform’s Nasdaq Transfer From OTC Could Raise $121 Million

The Chinese eCommerce services startup WeTrade Group is looking to raise about $121 million in its transfer from the OTC board to Nasdaq, according to the S-1 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Currently listed on the OTC under the symbol WETG, the membership-based eCommerce platform WeTrade has a market cap of $1.7 billion.

“Our goal is to provide technical and auto-billing management services for 100 million micro-business online stores in China through big data analytics, machine learning mechanisms, social network recommendations and multi-channel data analysis,” the company said in its filing.

Funds raised from the Nasdaq listing will be earmarked for research and development, marketing, staffing and investments. Expansion efforts include Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries. The company’s cloud intelligence division, YCloud, recently expanded into those markets.

“We expect to utilize the YCloud system to establish a global strategic cooperation with various social media platforms, including Kakao Talk, Line, WhatsApp, Ohho and Bluechat,” according to the listing.

WeTrade said its products are currently serving the eCommerce, tourism, hospitality and live-streaming/short video industries.

Nasdaq recently dropped shares of four Chinese construction and manufacturing companies for indexes as part of new restrictions on IPOs, according to CX Tech.

Nasdaq also has new restrictions that require companies from China and some other countries to raise $25 million in their IPO or at least a quarter of their post-listing market cap, according to sources, per the news portal.

A change is underway regarding global online shoppers and users’ interactions with Chinese eCommerce platforms. In a PYMNTS interview in March, James Huang, Payoneer’s regional vice president of Greater China, said the coronavirus crisis has shown that sellers are resilient.