China’s Quora-like Zhihu raises US$100 million in fresh funding from venture capital firms

Chinese question-and-answer platform Zhihu, also known as China’s Quora, has closed a US$100 million round of funding, the company said on Thursday.

Investors in Zhihu’s latest series D fundraising round include internet giant Tencent, Sogou, Chinese venture capital firms Capital Today and Qiming Venture Partners, as well as Sinovation Ventures, a venture capital company co-founded by former Google and Microsoft executive Lee Kai-Fu.

The Beijing-based firm last raised US$55 million over a year ago in 2015, and was valued at US$300 million. However, Zhihu did not reveal its current valuation after its latest fundraising round.

Zhihu founder Victor Zhou Yuan said that the funds will be used to expand the reach of its knowledge-sharing platform to connect more experts and users together. Eventually, experts on Zhihu could also make money by charging users when they dispense advice or knowledge, similar to other popular Chinese knowledge-sharing platforms such as Zaih.

Founded in 2011, Zhihu claims to have 65 million registered users on its platform, with over 18.5 million combined page visits and daily user visits.

Zhihu previously also raised US$22 million via a series B round in 2014, led by SAIF Partners. Their first series A funding round closed at US$10 million.