Lightspeed China Partners, a leading China focused venture capital firm, today announced it has invested in the Series B financing round of Meilele, the largest online retailer of self-branded furniture in China. The other participants in this Series B round include Vertex Venture Holdings Ltd., Lightspeed Venture Partners, KTB Capital and LionRock Capital. The total round size is $40 million US dollars. In April 2011, Lightspeed Venture Partners led Meilele's Series A financing in its first institutional round.

"The furniture market in China is a multi-billion dollar business"
Founded in 2008, Meilele has a unique online and offline sales model. In addition to its strong online presence, it has opened over 50 offline showrooms nationwide. Its monthly sales have grown over 10 times in the past 12 months. With this capital infusion, Meilele will further expand its product categories and service capabilities. "We aim to build the biggest online furniture commerce platform in China that provides the best value to its consumers," said Meilele's CEO Yang Gao.

Lightspeed China Partners has been focused on early-stage opportunities in the consumer Internet and services related sectors. Last month, the firm closed an investment in Tujia.com, the largest online vacation rental services provider in China.

"The furniture market in China is a multi-billion dollar business," noted James Mi, managing director of Lightspeed China Partners. "Meilele's unique business model is disruptive to traditional offline businesses which are very inefficient. We believe there is a huge opportunity for emerging e-commerce companies like Meilele that have strong online capabilities complemented by offline services."

About Meilele

Started in 2008 as a store within China's biggest e-commerce site Taobao.com, selling its own branded furniture, Meilele has since launched its own independent B2C website meilele.com. In addition, Meilele has opened more than 50 offline showrooms and has become the largest online furniture e-commerce company in China.

About Lightspeed China Partners

Lightspeed China Partners (LCP) is a leading China focused venture capital firm with investments in Internet, mobile, services, and information technology. With strong backgrounds in company operations and entrepreneurship, the partners of LCP are committed to helping a new generation of Chinese entrepreneurs become industry leaders, create world-class companies and have societal impact. In addition, LCP offers international value-added capabilities through its relationship with Lightspeed Venture Partners (LSVP). LSVP is a global venture capital firm headquartered in the U.S. with over $2 billion of committed capital under management.

About Lightspeed Venture Partners

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a leading global venture capital firm with over $2 billion of committed capital under management. Lightspeed's investment professionals and advisors are located in Silicon Valley, China, India, and Israel. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed more than 150 companies, many of which have become leaders in their respective markets, including Blue Nile, Brocade, Calista, Ciena, DoubleClick, eHealth, Fusion-io, Galileo Technology, Growth Networks, Informatica, Kiva Software, LivingSocial, Lucky Pai, Maker Communications, Phone.com, Playdom, Pliant, Riverbed Technology, TutorVista, Virsa Systems, Waveset and XtremIO.