Xiaohongshu wins over DST

China's Instagram-like social platform Xiaohongshu has gained the backing of venture capital firm DST Global in a share sale that valued the company at US$17 billion (HK$132.6 billion), the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed resources.

The photo and video-sharing platform, wildly popular with female city dwellers, arranged stake sales of existing shares in recent weeks to current and new investors. DST, founded by Moscow-born Israeli tech entrepreneur Yuri Milner and a past investor in Facebook, took part in the round along with Hong Kong-based HongShan, formerly Sequoia China, which added to its existing stake.

Chinese private equity firms Hillhouse Investment, Boyu Capital and Citic Capital also invested.

The size of DST's investment could not be ascertained.

Xiaohongshu made US$500 million in net profit last year on revenues of US$3.7 billion. By contrast, it made a US$200 million loss on revenues of about US$2 billion in 2022.

Staff reporter