One more Chinese company has joined the billion dollar startup club. Tujia, a Chinese vacation rental firm similar to Airbnb, has raised $300 million in its latest round of fundraising at a valuation of more than $1 billion, the company announced today.
Hong Kong-based All-Stars Investment, an investment fund run by former Morgan Stanley analyst Richard Ji, and serviced-apartment manager Ascott led the funding round. All-Stars is also a backer of Chinese smartphone brand Xiaomi and Chinese taxi-hailing firm Didi Kuaidi.
Tujia, which roughly means “home on a journey” in Mandarin, plans to use the proceeds to add product lines and expand overseas. Tujia already lists more than 300,000 properties online in about 255 tourist destinations in China and 133 cities abroad, including Bangkok,Tokyo, Paris and New York.
The company differs from Airbnb in that it works with real estate developers to help them rent out unsold inventories. It also offers services such as cleanups and property inspection and management.
Tujia was founded in 2011 by Luo Jun and Melissa Yang, who was responsible for overseeing Microsoft’s search engine Bing. Yang has worked as technology director at travel company Expedia.
