Kuaishou, a Chinese short-video and livestreaming app, raised $5.4 billion in its IPO. Its shares then nearly tripled in Friday trading, pumping the company’s valuation to $159 billion.
Why it matters: It's the largest global IPO in over a year, and the largest global tech IPO since Uber in May 2019. Plus, it means Kuaishou is now valued just a TikTok short of rival ByteDance.
Return on investment: Kuaishou has raised over $4 billion from firms like Sequoia Capital China, DCM, Morningside VC, DST Global, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Temasek, Boyu Capital and Shunwei Capital.
The bottom line: "Kuaishou's listing will be a test of appetite for Chinese technology firms just as Beijing steps up its scrutiny of the sector in areas from anti-monopoly to data protection. In November, the Chinese government introduced rules around live-streaming shopping, which could impact Kuaishou," CNBC's Arjun Kharpal writes.
