NEWS & EVENTS

Ganji.com Completes Investment from Nokia Growth Partners and BlueRun Ventures

BEIJING, May 31, 2010 – Ganji.com, China’s leading online classified advertisements provider, announced today that it has completed an  investment led by Nokia Growth Partners along with existing investor BlueRun Ventures, bringing  funding in Ganji close to US$20 million. 

"We are very pleased to have the opportunity to work with two leading investors, BlueRun Ventures and Nokia Growth Partners,” said Mark Yang, CEO and co-founder of Ganji.com. “With their support and investment, we will continue to deliver the best online classified advertisement service in China. In addition, having a stronger focus on mobile classifieds will ensure that our content will be available on more mobile phones, therefore providing a seamless and convenient experience for our users no matter where they are or what device they use.”

"Nokia Growth Partners invests in the best of breed mobile services and technology companies with significant potential for industry leadership and whose businesses can benefit from a deeper relationship with Nokia," said Paul Asel, Managing Partner at Nokia Growth Partners. "Ganji  is the premier online classified advertisements platform in China, providing local information and services addressing every day, real life needs.  With the expansion of China’s 3G network and the advent of next generation smartphones, we believe that location-based services will soon be a vital part of the mobile user experience in China.  Ganji’s customer traction, technology and team positions the company as the leader in this emerging field.”

 ‘Over the years working with Ganji, I have seen a  phenomenal growth in users’ needs for online classified advertisement services. Its business network now covers every major city in China. Jui Tan, Partner at BlueRun Ventures, an investor in the company since its inception commented, “More Chinese consumers are using the Internet to help with their daily life, like renting a house, buying a cheaper second hand item, finding a part time job or even looking for a pet. Ganji’s continuous effort to make their classified information reliable, simple to use and useful for such consumers’ needs is what I really like about them”.

About Nokia Growth Partners

Nokia Growth Partners is the premier venture investor focused on growth stage companies in the mobile industry. With $350M under management, Nokia Growth Partners invests in companies and people that are changing the global face of mobility, communications and the Internet. Nokia Growth Partners offers a global perspective and deep network in the mobile industry and works closely with Nokia to facilitate successful partnerships between Nokia and portfolio companies.  Nokia Growth Partners has offices in Menlo Park, Helsinki, Beijing and New Delhi.

About BlueRun Ventures

BlueRun Ventures is a leading early stage venture capital firm focused on Internet, Mobile and Media opportunities.  BlueRun works closely with entrepreneurs to build market-changing companies such as PayPal (EBAY), WiderThan (REAL) and Enpocket (NOK).   With offices in Menlo Park, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, Helsinki and Mumbai, BlueRun brings distributed insight to each market and opportunity to help young companies navigate dynamic markets.   For more information, www.brv.com.

About Ganji.com

Founded in March 2005, Ganji.com is a leading online classified advertisements platform in China. It delivers practical location-based information to its users, covering almost every aspect of people’s daily life, including sections devoted to housing, jobs, personals, for sale, services, tickets, pets and discussion forums.

As China’s most popular practical information portal for local life, Ganji.com was awarded RED HERRING 100 ASIA in 2009 and its mobile phone version Ganji.cn won the award of TOP10 Life-focused Websites for Mobile Phones in March 2010 by China Academy of Telecommunication Research of MIIT. For more information, please visit www.ganji.com.