By Fei Xie
Suning Sports, the sports unit of the Chinese retailer the Suning Holdings Group, announced on July 19 that it had completed its A-round financing which was jointly led by Goldman Sachs and Alibaba.
According to some industry news, the financing round was worth more than $600 million, with a total value of more than 10 billion yuan.
Apart from Goldman Sachs, a leading global investment banking company, and Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce giant, other investors in this fundraising included the Evergrande Group, China's second-largest real estate group, Yunfeng Capital, a private equity firm, and the AI company Sensetime.
Suning Sports is a subsidiary of the Suning Commerce Group, which owns almost a 70 percent stake in Italian soccer club Inter Milan, and its copyright resources include 90 percent of the domestic sports content.
The company also includes everything from club operation management and youth training to sports media and three football clubs. Also, it has strived to drive synergies between Suning's core retail business and its video streaming unit PPTV.
Suning Sports and Alibaba will conduct in-depth cooperation in the sports industry, said Mi Xin, the vice president of Suning Sports.
Alibaba's online video platform Youku, which attracted more than 24 million viewers during the World Cup battle between France and Croatia, will work closely with PPTV.
According to Mi Xin, PPTV will focus on the streaming of professional sports events and Youku will leverage its expertise in sports entertainment.
The two companies are aiming to build a sports industry worth 5 trillion yuan (US$813 billion) by 2025.
