19 November 2009 – LawFuel Legal Newswire –
China – DLA Piper today announced that it advised GGV Capital (formerly known as Granite Global Ventures) in connection with its US$15 million investment in Beijing-based travel search engine Qunar.com. GGV Capital was the lead investor in the financing with co-investors that included the Mayfield Fund, GSR Ventures, Tenaya Capital and donews.com. Partner Rocky Lee led DLA Piper’s deal team, which included lawyers Jasmine Quek, Qiao Ziying and Wang Hongling, all from DLA Piper’s Beijing office.
This is Qunar.com’s third round of venture capital financing, the funds of which will be used to further develop the company’s brand and other market activities. Qunar.com (www.qunar.com), China’s leading travel search engine, was launched in March 2005 as the country’s first travel search engine. By 2007, Qunar.com achieved over 12 million visitors and by 2009, the number of visitors surpassed 26 million. As a pioneering company, Qunar.com also launched China’s first international flight search service in June 2008.
Rocky Lee, Partner of DLA Piper and its head of Private Equity & Venture Capital practice in Asia said, “As confidence grows in China and its domestic consumption increases, China’s online travel business is receiving more attention from investors. Internet businesses are really heating up again in China. Qunar.com’s successful series C financing is another sign that momentum is picking up in this space, and that dynamic companies with good reputations and solid track records should continue to have success raising funds from investors in the year to come. We expect to see more cross-border investments ahead and we look forward to working closely with our clients to help them optimize their growth strategies both domestically and overseas. DLA Piper is well-placed to help clients as one of the few international firms that can advise on cross border investments and provide strategic advice for our client’s expansion in Asia and globally.”
GGV Capital leads expansion-stage venture capital investments in the United States and Asia and focuses on expansion-stage innovation around the world with a dual focus on the U.S. and China. The company is one of the first venture capital firms to fund start-ups in China and among the first to actively introduce U.S. companies to new markets in the region. www.ggvc.com
