Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has poured “hundreds of millions” of yuan into Shenzhen-based business software firm OKKI (Link in Chinese), as the e-commerce giant seeks to provide international business customers more data-rich services and scale up its overseas operations.
OKKI, which changed its name from Xiaoman Technology last year, uses big data and artificial intelligence to help business clients — mostly Chinese firms — manage their interactions with customers.
In a statement announcing the conclusion of its Series D funding round on Wednesday, OKKI placed the investment in the context of a coronavirus-driven slowdown in export growth. “Upgrading the informatisation of businesses is key to their successful launch overseas,” the firm said.
A spokesperson for Alibaba confirmed that it had invested in OKKI but would not disclose the exact amount of funding, or quantify the stake it had purchased.
Alibaba has been pursuing aggressive growth in China and overseas after Chairman Daniel Zhang announced in June that the company would seek to expand into more foreign markets, with a long-term goal of securing 2 billion customers globally by 2036.
OKKI’s flagship product is self-branded customer relationship management software that uses machine learning to recommend and track customers, manage orders, and analyze performance data, according to the company.
The software firm is expected to leverage Alibaba’s international client base, where online vendors grew 60% in the past three years and which is expected to count some 200,000 registered foreign traders by the end of this year. OKKI now claims some 100,000 users, with around a tenth of those paying for its services.
OKKI said it would operate independently of Alibaba and use the investment for research and development, particularly focusing on information security.
Valued over 100 million yuan ($14.4 million) in 2016, OKKI counts Zero One Venture Capital, Qiming Venture Capital and China Growth Capital among its previous investors.
Contact editor Flynn Murphy (flynnmurphy@caixin.com)
