A Series C round of funding worth nearly USD 100 million reportedly gave the SaaS-provider a valuation of USD 1.4 billion, marking one of the largest capital injections of the year in the industry.
Software as a Service is on the rise. Image Credit: Pete Linforth/Pixabay
XForcePlus (票易通) secured a Series C funding round of USD 100 million, attracting further attention to China’s rising SaaS scene. This round was led by Singaporean government-backed Temasek, Hillhouse Capital Group (高瓴资本) and SaaS-investment-focused Eastern Bell Capital.
Shanghai XForcePlus Information Technology, known as XForcePlus, focuses on the development and application of industry solutions in the field of enterprise SaaS. The company’s core products include cloud and software services.
After more than four years in the SaaS market, the company has become one of the most assertive players in the industry. The Shanghai-based SaaS provider claims to cooperate with clients in 32 provinces and municipalities across China, connecting more than 450,000 upstream and downstream suppliers and more than 1.9 million tax numbers.
The new series means the company has accumulated financings of over CNY 1 billion overall (the equivalent of around USD 143 million). According to EqualOcean Analyst Feng Linyan, despite the global macroeconomic uncertainty and the end of the bull run, SaaS stocks outperformed SPY with a 19.46% increase in TTM.
The SaaS industry is still promising in China, which translates into greater room for long-term strategic investment. Regarding global venture capital investment deals in SaaS, China’s share accounted for roughly 2.8%, while the United States ranks top of the list, with 57.3% as of July 2019, leading the world’s SaaS market.
Although China accounts for a relatively small share of global investments in SaaS, XForcePlus' strategic position has led the company to close deals with many impactful enterprises, including Poly Real Estate (PRE: SSE), Vanke Real Estate (VANKE-A: SZSE), Alibaba (BABA: NSDQ) and Ping An Bank (PAB: SZSE).
The company’s angel investor, Ivy Capital, boasts of its investment, claiming that XForcePlus may be valued at over CNY 10 billion (the equivalent of around USD 1.4 billion) in the near future.
Over the past two years, XForcePlus has renewed its core team members from top to bottom. Huang He (黄河), the former Global Partner of McKinsey, will be the CMO of XForcePlus and Ye Qian (叶谦), the former CEO of Alibaba Group, will be the Chief Product Officer.
“The integration of old and new teams will surely lead cloud computing to a higher level,” says Eastern Bell Capital.
The new office changes and fundraising will bring a new dynamic to the company to enhance its position in the market. This round of financing also reflects the trust and recognition of the SaaS business in China for investors.