The company has seen its valuation more than double in the past two years. (File)
Beijing / Shanghai:
ByteDance, owner of TikTok, is in talks to raise a new round of funding that will value it at $ 180 billion after the investment, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The company is discussing the round with existing investors, including Sequoia Capital and General Atlantic, in order to raise around $ 2 billion for the company, the people said, declining to be named because negotiations were not public.
This is not a pre-IPO cycle, one of the sources said, as ByteDance has yet to decide whether to secure a stand-alone public listing for Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, or list some of its Chinese operations, including Douyin and the news aggregator. Jinri Toutiao package in Hong Kong or Shanghai.
ByteDance explored both scenarios, Reuters reported last month and in July.
General Atlantic declined to comment. ByteDance and Sequoia Capital did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Washington has put great pressure on the company to sell the U.S. operations of its popular TikTok short video app. The White House maintains that TikTok poses national security concerns, as personal data collected on 100 million Americans who use the app could be obtained by the Chinese government.
Discussions are underway to finalize a preliminary agreement allowing Walmart Inc and Oracle Corp to acquire stakes in a new company to oversee TikTok’s US operations.
ByteDance is currently working out details in areas such as staff, such as which staff members will join the new TikTok entity, one of the sources said.
The Chinese company has seen its valuation more than double in the past two years. ByteDance’s last round of funding dates back to 2018, which valued the company at $ 78 billion after the investment. Earlier this year, ByteDance was valued at nearly $ 140 billion in the private equity secondary market.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
