Apartment rental platform Mofang Apartments has raised a total funding of close to US$200 million from Warburg Pincus and will accelerate growth with the launch of its Apartment + strategy to create a one-stop accommodation lifestyle service platform for young people.
Mofang Apartments entered China’s long-term rental sector in 2010 and currently operates 70 offices and 10,000 apartments to service 20,000 residents in major and medium sized cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Wuhan and Suzhou.
US-based Warburg Pincus Group was one of the earliest global investment groups to enter China in 1994 and has since invested a total of US$5 billion in around 90 companies, including China Huarong Asset Management, CAR Inc, Baosteel Gases, Red Star Macalline, AAG Energy Limited and Franshion Properties.
This is Warburg Pincus’s second lot of funding for Mofang Apartments to up the total investment in the latter to US$200 million, having put in US$60 million in the Mofang Apartment’s Series B financing round in 2013.
Apartment rental brands have mushroomed these days. Some of them, such as Ziroom Apartment and YOU+, adopt a centralized model while others like Mogoroom and CK365.com go for the scattered model like. Like YOU+, Mofang Apartments offers long-term apartment rentals with a centralized model that leases apartments in a single commercial or industrial building, in the price range of RMB3,000-RMB6,000 range in the major cities Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and RMB2,000-RMB4,000 in second-tier cities, vis-à-vis CK365.com’s pricing under RMB2,000.
Investments have been pouring into the long-term apartment rentals as their popularity grows. SAIF Partners invested RMB160 million (approx: US$25 million) in the sector in 2013 while apartment rental Uoko’s received US$4 million from Legend Capital for its Series A financing in 2013 and US$20 million from Matrix Partners China in the Series B financing in 2014.
Shanghai apartment rental Yujian received a multi-million dollar investment from China Renaissance K2 Ventures, Ce Yuan Ventures and IDG. Pingan Fund made a multi-million RMB investment in Mogoroom and You+ got a RMB100 million (approx: US$16 million) investment from Leijun in the end of 2014.(Translation by David)
