Lvmama: Lvmama Bags USD400 Million to Optimize New Travel Retail Model

(Yicai Global) Dec. 28 -- The company behind Chinese tourism platform Lvmama has raised CNY2.6 billion (USD400 million) in funds optimize its brick-and-mortar operations and invest in its 71 subsidiaries. Fullshare Holdings Co. made the injection by acquiring a third-party limited partnership under Shanghai Joyu Culture Communication Co., Lvmama’s founder Hong Qinghua said yesterday. The funding comes shortly after Ningbo Zhongbang Industrial Financing Holding Co. pumped CNY1 billion into the firm in September. Lvmama plans to ramp up its offline business technologies, increase efficiency at its more than 1,000 stores next year and integrate its on- and offline divisions to develop a new travel retail model. New Retail has become a key term in China’s progressing consumer economy as of late. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Chairman Jack Ma coined the term last year, and describes it as “the integration of online, offline, logistics and data across a single value chain.”