BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. private equity firms Sequoia Capital and KKR & Co are leading ByteDance’s latest funding round that will value the Chinese tech giant and TikTok owner at $180 billion, two people familiar with the matter said.
The funding round, which aims to raise $2 billion and would make it the world’s most valuable financing round in the private market, is drawing to a close after kicking off about a month ago, the two people said.
The sources declined to be identified as talks were not public. A Sequoia spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. KKR didn’t immediately respond. ByteDance declined to comment.
The Chinese company has seen its valuation more than double in the past two years.
ByteDance’s last round of financing dates back to 2018, which valued it at $78 billion after that round. Earlier this year, ByteDance was valued at as much as $140 billion in the secondary private equity market.
The jump in valuation comes despite a U.S. order, citing national security grounds, that ByteDance must divest TikTok’s U.S. assets.
In its home market, however, it is on track to rake in at least 180 billion yuan ($27.2 billion) in advertising revenue this year, Reuters has reported.
Douyin, ByteDance’s Chinese version of TikTok, said it had amassed 600 million daily users in August.
(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Edwina Gibbs, Robert Birsel)
