iQIYI Sports Completes RMB 850 Million Series A Financing

BEIJING, Sept. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- iQIYI Inc. (NASDAQ: IQ) ("iQIYI" or the "Company"), an innovative market-leading online entertainment service in China, today announced that iQIYI Sports, a joint venture between iQIYI and Super Sports Media, has successfully completed its Series A round of financing, securing a total of RMB 850 million in investment.

The second tranche of financing announced today secured an investment of RMB 350 million from both China Sports Capital, a joint venture between CMC Capital Partners and Sequoia Capital, and Yao Capital. This followed an initial tranche of RMB 500 million financing completed earlier last month, provided by IDG Capital and private equity firm Hui Ying Bo Run.

"We are delighted that iQIYI Sports, our joint venture with Super Sports Media, has successfully completed its Series A round of financing," said Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQIYI. "Over the last few years, China's entertainment industry has grown at spectacular pace and iQIYI has been looking into expanding our offerings in this area for a long time. Our partnership with Super Sports Media in this exciting new joint venture is the ideal combination of both companies' strengths, stimulating growth across the industry through the creation of an online platform which understands content, our users and our business partners. iQIYI is committed to supporting the growth of the iQIYI Sports and will continue contribute our wealth of existing IP and resources to ensure our users receive a level of sports entertainment experience unmatched by any other platform."

"With the support of these new shareholders, iQIYI Sports is in the ideal position to change the landscape of online sports entertainment in China," said Yu Lingxiao, CEO of iQIYI Sports. "The combination of iQIYI's advanced technological capabilities and vast numbers of subscribing members with Super Sports Media's many years of experience in pay-per-view sports entertainment creates a partnership of unprecedented strength in industry. The successful completion of our Series A financing is a clear illustration of this new venture's potential and we are excited to be bringing our users better content and service of sports entertainment."

iQIYI Sports, a new online sports media platform, is a joint venture between iQIYI, Inc. and Super Sports Media, a subsidiary of DDMC Group. As the Chinese sports industry has matured over the past few years, the viewing habits of sports fans have changed, providing a powerful opportunity for the newly founded iQIYI Sports platform. The upgraded iQIYI Sports app will bring its subscribers top flight coverage of association football, golf, and tennis competitions, including the Premier League, the UEFA Nations League, the Masters, the British Open, the US Open, the PGA Championship, the PGA Tour, the Australian Open, the ATP World Tour and the WTA Tour. iQIYI Sports subscribers will soon also be able to enjoy La Liga, Euro 2020 and other leading football competitions such as the AFC Champions League, AFC Asian Cup and FIFA World Cup Qualification.

About iQIYI, Inc.

iQIYI, Inc. (NASDAQ:IQ) ("iQIYI" or the "Company") is an innovative market-leading online entertainment service in China. Its corporate DNA combines creative talent with technology, fostering an environment for continuous innovation and the production of blockbuster content. iQIYI's platform features highly popular original content, as well as a comprehensive library of other professionally-produced content, partner-generated content and user-generated content. The Company distinguishes itself in the online entertainment industry by its leading technology platform powered by advanced AI, big data analytics and other core proprietary technologies. iQIYI attracts a massive user base with tremendous user engagement, and has developed a diversified monetization model including membership services, online advertising services, content distribution, live broadcasting, online games, IP licensing, online literature and e-commerce etc. For more information on iQIYI, please visit http://ir.iqiyi.com.  

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SOURCE iQIYI, Inc.