Fosun Leads 3 Billion Yuan Investment in Babytree

(Beijing) — China’s leading parenting website, Babytree, has revealed that Fosun Group is the lead investor in a 3 billion yuan ($437 million) funding.

The investment conglomerate intends to use Babytree’s 200 million daily active users to tie in many of Fosun’s existing assets. Fosun Chairman Guo Guangchang said on Wednesday at a signing ceremony in Shanghai that Babytree will serve as a portal, making the services of many family-consumption businesses more accessible.

“Fosun has invested in companies that cater to the health, prosperity and well-being of middle class families. … Babytree is exactly what we need to integrate these services,” said Guo.

The market in parenting-related e-commerce is expected to grow by nearly 160% year-on-year in 2016, according to Sootoo Research, a Beijing-based consulting firm.

Both companies are eyeing the immense consumption power of China’s post-’90s generation as they become parents. “The new mothers of today have different consumption patterns compared to those nine years ago, and we need to ready ourselves for this change,” Babytree founder and CEO Wang Huainan said at the event.

The Jumei-backed company, which originally began as a baby-photo-album website, now mainly relies on parenting-related e-commerce sales for revenue. With help from Fosun, the company will begin a more serious approach to its fledgling financial services, including insurance and wealth management products that target expectant mothers.

The recent round of funding is likely to pave the way for Babytree’s domestic listing. In July this year, the company’s chief operating officer, Wei Xiaowei, said during a marketing summit in Shanghai that the 3 billion yuan funding underway will support the dismantling of Babytree’s variable-interest entity structure, allowing it to go public in China.

“Fosun’s investment will benefit our operations in China, the base of our revenue and users,” said Wang, though he declined to elaborate on plans for an initial public offering.

Contact reporter April Ma (fangjingma@caixin.com); Kerry Nelson (kerry@caixin.com)