Investments in start-up projects surprise the market
The gaming company Discord and the Chinese homework service Yuanfudao successfully conducted the next round of attracting deposits. Recent investments in start-up projects almost reached $ 500 million.
Chat, in which millions sit, received huge investments
Discord is a company created by gamers, enthusiasts who develop a chat for the same game lovers. 14 million people daily, who send more than 315 million messages per day, already use them. No wonder investors are interested in the project.
In the spring of 2017, Discord raised $ 50 million at a valuation of almost $ 2 billion. The last investment round, held in late 2018, allowed them to get another 150 million from Greenoaks Capital, Index Ventures, IVP and other IT companies.
Thus, the total investment in a startup project, taking into account other investments, reached $ 280 million.
Discord already knows how to spend the money. In the immediate objectives of the company – the launch of the game store, which will compete with the giants Steam and Origin. So far, the project is working in beta mode, but its full opening is scheduled for this year.
Investments in startup projects: China is on horseback again
If it seems that 150 million dollars for a chat is too much, then the successes of Yuanfudao will surprise you even more.
In December 2018, the company raised $ 300 million, and its valuation was $ 3 billion. The total investment in the project exceeded 500 million.
Yuanfudao (“tutor” from Chinese) works in the niche of educational services. The company provides access to online lectures and databases with examples of solutions for different exam tasks. But the main pride of Yuanfudao – the application that allows to do homework. The program is extremely easy to use – just take a picture of the example and get the result.
According to the company, more than 200 million people around the world actively use its services. The core of the audience is schoolchildren and their parents, for whom Yuanfudao is a convenient tool for checking the success of children.
The company will spend the proceeds from investors on developments in the field of artificial intelligence, as well as on increasing the budget for the functionality of the corporate application.
