DouyuTV, an online entertainment company that broadcasts live esports events in China, has now raised more than RMB2bn (€265.4m/$300.6m) in funding in 2016 alone following a Series C financing round.
The latest investment of $226m in the startup was led by Phoenix Capital Asset Management and Tencent Holdings, which owns China's largest and most used internet service portal. Shenzhen Capital Group and National SME Development Fund also participated in the round.
DouyuTV, like market leader and Amazon subsidiary Twitch, specialises in video game live broadcast, where users can share and watch how other players perform in popular video game series.
After the latest round of financing, Douyu said in a statement that it plans to co-operate further with Tencent in content sharing. The sports unit of Douyu will be integrated into Qie Live, a live broadcast platform under Tencent.
“Our deep capital reserve will solidify our leading position to help drive growth of our business,” DouyuTV founder Chen Shaojie said.
Founded in 2014, the Wuhan-based company claims to have 15m daily active users and 200m monthly active users, with a 70-per-cent share of the market.