A WeChat Official Account named Fang Dong Dong (“房东东”) reported that long-stay apartment leasing service startup Mofang Apartment had completed its series C round funding of USD 300 million led by AVIC Trust. The startup will be worth over USD 1 billion at post-money valuation after the round.  

Mofang Apartment was founded in August 2010 as one of China’s early apartment rental chain services offering individual long-stay accommodation solutions for white-collar workers. The company has now a chain of 100 directly-operated brick-and-mortars outlets and over 15,000 apartments in major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Wuhan, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu and Xi’an. The company closed its series B round in 2013 with USD 60 million from DT Capital and Warburg Pincus. The latter investor injected an extra USD 140 million funding in the Mofang Apartment in May 2015, boosting its total investment in the startup to USD 200 million.  

Long-stay apartment rental business targeting young tenants has been attracting investors for the past two years. The B2C-focused Hizhu.com which completed Pre-A-round funding with more than USD 2 million last year, is embarking on its series A round funding. Stayes, an apartment rental platform targeting expatriates staying in South Korea, announced that it had received KRW 500 million in a funding round led by Bon Angels. Homeinns joined Sequoia Capital and E-House China in establishing an independent and wholly-owned apartment rental brand named “Comma”. CYPA (China Young Professionals Apartments) received a strategic investment from China Lodging Group last month. YOU+ International Youth Community, an apartment rental brand targeting youth worker in the cities, has also completed two rounds of financing. (Translated by Jerry)