The upcoming fundraising round by Chinese media startup Bytedance will attract investment from the likes of SoftBank Group as it chases a fresh $3 billion for international expansion plans, sources told the Wall Street Journal.
Bytedance, which operates China’s most popular news aggregator, Jinri Toutiao, hopes to achieve a $75 billion valuation from the latest round, more than doubling its value from late last year. If this is achieved, Bytedance would be among the world’s most valuable private tech companies.
The new funds, of which half will be in convertible bonds, will be invested in Bytedance’s international businesses, the sources said.
Bytedance kickstarted its movements abroad when another of its platforms, video app TikTok, merged with social-media app Musical.ly, which is popular in the US. After the deal, TikTok went on to become the most downloaded app on Apple and Android phones after Facebook-operated Messenger and Whatsapp.