Beijing-based asset allocation platform Lixiangjia said on Thursday that it had completed its $45 million Series D funding. The company didn't disclose the name of investors.
Meanwhile, the startup has begun the auditing process for an overseas IPO, according to an unnamed source at a New York investment bank.
Founded in 2013, Lixiangjia is a platform that provides financial products to Chinese clients in different countries and regions. These include overseas stocks, funds, insurance, and real estate products.
The company targets Chinese financial planners who are looking for overseas assets for their high net-worth clients. Lixiangjia claims to serve 160,000 financial planners and institutions around the world.
Sales quadrupled last year, and doubled in the first six months of this year. At the same time, the company has been boosting its leadership team. JPMorgan veteran Gong Fangxioing and Wei Zhe, ex-chief executive of Alibaba, have joined Lixiangjia as senior consultants.
The startup completed its $17.4 million Series C funding in December last year with money from LB Investment, Fountain Capital, Visas Consulting Group and others. Bertelsmann Asia Investments and Sinolink Securities were early-stage investors in the company.
Chief executive Chao Zhu said that he has seen an increasing number of Chinese people buying overseas assets. There has been a particular upsurge in Hong Kong insurance. According to data from the Hong Kong Insurance Authority, total Hong Kong insurance sales have risen 7.9% year-on-year. The total volume of insurance purchased in Hong Kong by mainland Chinese last year was HK$47.6 billion ($6.9 billion).
Insurance is just one of the overseas assets that they have targeted. Chinese individuals increased overseas investment by 10% a year between 2016 and 2018, according to a report from China Merchants Bank and Bain.
When he conducted media interviews last year, Zhu was very optimistic about an IPO in Hong Kong early in 2019. But since then he has refused to reveal any more details. Turbulence in the global stock markets might have delayed Lixiangjia's IPO plans, but better late than never.
