Telstra invests in Chinese cloud storage firm Qiniu
Telstra is continuing its push into Asia, announcing an investment in China-based cloud storage firm Qiniu.
Telstra is continuing its push into Asia, announcing an investment in China-based cloud storage firm Qiniu.
The Australian telco used its Telstra Ventures arm to pour an undisclosed amount into Qiniu, which offers data processing and hosting capabilities for firms in Asia.
Headquartered in Shanghai, Qiniu was founded in 2011.
Telstra’s investment is part of a $100 million Series D funding round, joined by Harvest Global Investments and China Broadband Capital.
Telstra Ventures managing director Matthew Koertge told The Australian the telco had made five venture investments in the region in about a year, in addition to acquiring Asian telco Pacnet for $856m in late 2014.
He could not confirm how much Telstra was investing in Qiniu but said the telco’s investments were typically between $US5m and $US10m and this one was “not too far away from that”.
He said Qinui was a compelling proposition, given its Asian location and “wonderful customer base and product”.
“China is an important market for Telstra as we grow our international business,” Mr Koertge said.
“In addition to our shareholding in leading online car business Autohome, Telstra has a presence in the Chinese enterprise and data centre market through our joint venture company, PBS.
“We will now look for opportunities to work with Qiniu to enhance our offering both inside China and beyond.” Qiniu CEO Xu Shiwei said the funds would accelerate opportunities for collaboration across Asia.
“Our mission is to redefine cloud computing and big data with groundbreaking technologies that make services faster, simpler and more reliable,” Mr Xu said.
“Combining Telstra’s established cloud and network infrastructure and our innovative technology in cloud-storage should drive a lot of new business opportunities for both companies.”
Cloud computing is a type of processing in which large groups of remote servers are networked to allow centralised data storage and online access to computer services or resources.
It has been an area of significant investment for many of the world’s tech giants in recent years as most businesses migrate their applications to the cloud.
Mr Koertge said he expected Telstra Ventures, which had been operating for about four years, to continue grow its presence in Asia in line with Telstra’s international growth strategy.
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