Chinese social media and gaming giant Tencent has invested in more than 800 companies to date, of which over 70 have gone public and more than 160 are unicorns with a market capitalization or valuation of more than $1 billion.
In 2014, Tencent became the majority shareholder of JD.com with a 15 percent stake. As of June 5 this year, Tencent held 527.2 million ordinary shares of JD.com, representing 17.9% of the total shares, and remained the largest shareholder.
In August 2018, food delivery giant Meituan Dianping launched a pre-IPO pitch in Hong Kong to raise at least $4 billion. Tencent invested $400 million in it, becoming Meituan's largest shareholder. Tencent's stake in Meituan now stands at 18.09%.
On March 31, 2020, Tencent acquired 6,155,740,000 Class A common shares of e-commerce giant Pinduoduo for an amount of $50 million. At this point, Tencent's shareholding in the company increased to 16.5%.
It is worth noting that, for many companies, the single largest shareholder is no longer the founders, but Tencent.
Tencent's big breakout by investment happened in 2018 when it invested in Bilibili, Meituan, and Pinduoduo, which went public. And these "Tencent" companies are still maintaining high growth this year under the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Monday, Tencent was reported to acquire China's second-largest search engine company Sogou (SOGO.US) in a wholly-owned deal.
Tencent was Sogou's single largest shareholder before the deal, holding 38.71 percent of the company, more than Sohu's 33.44 percent.
Sogou shares surge 46 percent on report that Tencent will buy it
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