Feb 10, 2017

China: Offline store Huimin acquires Sequoia-Backed Beequick Subscribe to our newsletter Juliet Shwe Gaung February 10, 2017: &nbsp Beequick , an online to offline one hour long delivery service has been bought by Huimin , a Beijing-based neighborhood store start-up, a result of a lack of funding opportunity for the latter, the China Money Network reported. The acquisition will help Beequick “survive as an independent unit under Huimin” but puts an end to Beequick’s aspirations for an initial public offering. The start up that was founded in 2014 provides a delivery service that takes only an hour for convenient store products like snacks, beverages, liquor and coffee by reaching out from the nearest convenient stores in town. Beequick’s series A funding of $20 million in 2014 was led by Sequoia, that focuses on early stage tech companies across US, China, India and Israel. A year later, it announced another $20 million series B round led by Hillhouse Capital , a China focused fund that manages over $20 billion in Asia. Its series C funding of $70 million that came from Hillhouse, Tiantu , Shenzhen headquartered investment management firm and Sequoia that invests in emerging technology companies across US, China and Israel. Beequick has got over 100,000 convenient stores on its platform as they make good use of the large network of local convenient stores in China. Prior to the acquisition, Beequick had suffered from shortage of cash and even had to cut staff for survival. They also gave one of their two office floors in Beijing. Huimin, also a start-up and an e-commerce platform and operates across about 450,000 stores across China. It focuses on providing commerce and logistics solutions for family owned convenience stores and recently received a series B funding of about $200 million. Also Read: