Well-link Technologies, a Chinese cloud gaming service provider, announced Monday it had raised $40 million in an early stage or B2 funding round led by Singapore's state investment firm Temasek. The deal was confirmed by Temasek in an email.
After the difficulties faced by Chinese startups in racing new funds, Well-link was able to raise millions of dollars from high-profile investors, including existing shareholders Future Capital and CDH Venture and Growth Capital.
Well-link said its revenue has grown by a massive 400% or more in each of the last two years, putting the startup on track for revenue of several hundred million yuan. CEO Guo Jianjun told reporters the valuation that Temasek had not received the highest level of the company. He said that the new capital injection will put the startup on a solid financial footing to be able to expand its operations overseas.
Well-Link is a leading provider of solutions for video cloud computing in China. The startup is a developer and pioneer of cloud computing architecture and other key technologies such as real-time audio and video coding and decoding.
In just three years, Well-Link has built its business around real-time cloud rendering. Cloud rendering uses multiple servers on the cloud, rather than a single computer, to make the computations necessary for creating images such as animations and movies.
The startup built a set of high-quality standardized cloud gaming platforms as a service PaaS models to provide one-stop solutions for companies such as game operators, developers and gaming companies, including helping miHoYo launch the cloud version of the hit game Genshin Impact.
The market size of China's cloud gaming industry is expected to reach 19.3 billion yuan in 2021 and reach 100 billion yuan by the year 2023, according to a report from the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute.
The current global economic downturn seems to have little impact on Temasek. The state-owned company acquired Bridgepoint's UK-based testing company earlier this year for $7 billion. The investment reported a 25% increase in its portfolio value to a record S $381 billion $283 billion in the year ending March 2021, one of the biggest deals by Temasek and a rare controlling-stake transaction by the investor.
Temasek's exposure to China has declined over the last two years, from 29% in 2020 to 22% as of March. According to Dealogic, Temasek had only participated in eight China financing deals last week, down from 41 last year.