Tiger Global-backed grocery delivery start-up Missfresh is fighting to survive as it shuts operations across China, wallows in an accounting scandal and searches for capital to sustain its business, reports the Financial Times. Shares of the Nasdaq-listed company have lost 97% of their value since its IPO in June last year, and this week announced it would dilute ailing shareholders further by issuing 300 million shares to a Shanxi coal mining group for RMB 200 million ($30 million).
The sale will hand Shanxi Donghui Group a roughly 30% stake in Missfresh and it will be able to appoint two directors as part of the transaction.
The upheaval marks a stark turn of fortunes for Missfresh, which pulled in more than $1 billion in financing from investors such as Tiger Global and Goldman Sachs and gained a $3 billion valuation in New York one year ago. Its market value has now sunk to $88 million.