Baidu Video Completes B Round Financing Securing $100 Million

Baidu Video completed its B round of financing with the support from institutional investors including Houze Ruyi, Jadex Capital, and Gfund Management. The lead investor was Baidu and the total investment volume was USD 100 million. CEC Capital served as the sole financial adviser to Baidu Video during this round of financing.

Baidu Video, which was a business unit of Baidu, but went independent after raising RMB 1 billion in 2016, is China’s largest video search and PGC (professionally-generated content) distribution platform. The platform has more than 800 million videos and an active download volume of 600 million.

Baidu Video is one of the top content aggregation platforms in China. Since 2018, Baidu Video has started to focus more on its short-video content ecosystem. According to iResearch, in July of 2018, Baidu Video’s mobile monthly active users (MAU) reached 70 million, which shows significant growth from the previous period.

Baidu Video has deepened its partnerships with Chinese mainstream video streaming sites, multi-channel networks (MCN), and media and PGC producers. The company has strategically invested in 36KR Group, rr.tv, hanjutv.com, Tmeng, Beike Video, and other original video content platforms.

Having secured the funding from this round of financing, Baidu Video will strengthen its R&D of cutting-edge technologies, such as content customization, content generation, and AI to fully embrace this era of short videos.