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Bloomberg
Boqii Co, a Chinese online pet shop backed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc, is planning an initial public offering that could raise at least $100 million, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The sale could happen this year, the people said, asking not to be identified.
The Shanghai-based e-commerce startup is considering selling shares in Hong Kong or the US, one of the people said.
Boqii is tapping into rising affluence as more households adopt pets in a Chinese market that Frost & Sullivan expects will more than double to $70 billion by 2023.
The online platform has more than 12 million paying users, selling them food, providing listings for veterinarians and groomers and operating a social network for owners to share pictures of their animals.
A successful IPO would add to the $2.6 billion Chinese companies have raised via first-time overseas share sales this year. That’s a slow start compared with the $5.9 billion during same period of 2018.