Lagou Valuation, Funding & Investors
Lagou is valued at $100M as of March 2014.
Last Lagou valuation
$100M
Series A · Mar 2014
Last Lagou funding round
$120M
Series D · Sep 2017
Cumulative funding Lagou raised
$184M
across 5 funding rounds
Key investors in Lagou
Qiming Venture Partners
BAI capital
Bertelsmann
Hongdao Capital
51job
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Bob Xiaoping Xu
About Lagou
Lagou is a Beijing-headquartered online recruitment platform operating Lagou.com, serving China's tech talent market since 2013. The site matches professionals with employers including Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, JD.com, and Xiaomi through specialized job boards in software development, AI, and product management. It processes millions of applications annually via mobile app and web interfaces.
Founded
2013
HQ
BeijingWebsite
Status
Privately held
Customer focus
B2B
Revenue model
Advertising
Valuation
$100M (Mar 2014)
Sectors
Lagou Valuation
Lagou is currently valued at $100M, based on its Series A in March 2014.
Lagou valuation by funding round
| Date | Stage | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2014 | Series A | $100M |
Lagou Funding History
Lagou has raised a total of $184M across 5 funding rounds.
Lagou's first fundraising round was a $300K angel round in January 2014. The most recent completed round was a $120M Series D in September 2017.
Lagou funding rounds
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Valuation | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2017 | Series D | 51job (lead); Bob Xiaoping Xu; Qiming Venture Partners; BAI capital | $120M | - | Beijing Lagou Network Technology Co., operator of Lagou.com, is a job-matching platform founded in 2013 that specializes in vertical recruitment, particularly connecting tech talents and companies using a back-end payment model where recruiters pay and job seekers browse for free. It focuses on IT sector recruitment and has expanded into human resource management services like salary, social security, and training solutions. By September 2017, Lagou completed its Series D strategic financing round, raising USD120 million primarily from 51job, which acquired a 60% controlling stake, with participation from Qiming Venture Partners, Bob Xiaoping Xu, and Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI Capital). The deal valued the company at an implied post-money valuation of approximately USD200 million, as 51job paid USD120 million for 60% ownership. Lagou's management, core team, organizational structure, customers, and data remained independent post-acquisition. Lagou demonstrated strong growth prior to the round, with sales revenue growing over 100% for four consecutive years and monthly income exceeding CNY10 million (about USD15.2 million), holding the largest share in the vertical recruitment market. It served hundreds of thousands of customers amid challenges like rising traffic acquisition costs and market diversification, where its main business was seen as reaching a ceiling by some employees. The company planned to accelerate revenue growth and pursue an IPO, originally targeted for 2019. By 2018, Lagou had grown to 1.2 million registered companies and 34 million job seekers, processing over 12 million job applications monthly. Competitively, Lagou operated in China's crowded HR services market alongside players like 51job, which offers comprehensive recruitment including headhunting and campus hiring across 25 cities. Post-acquisition, 51job integrated Lagou into its portfolio, later forming strategic partnerships like with WeChat in 2018 to enhance recruitment via social channels. Prior funding included a $34 million Series C in March 2016 led by Qiming, building a total raised of around $64 million before the D round according to some trackers, though the 2017 deal marked a shift to corporate majority ownership. |
| Mar 2016 | Series C | Hongdao Capital (lead); Qiming Venture Partners | $34M | - | - |
| Aug 2014 | Series B | Qiming Venture Partners (lead); Bertelsmann | $25M | - | - |
| Mar 2014 | Series A | - | $5M | $100M | Lagou is a Chinese job recruitment platform. In 2014, it raised a $25 million funding round led by Bertelsmann, valuing the company at over $100 million post-money. This followed a prior seed round. The round provided capital for expansion in the competitive online recruitment market in China. |
| Jan 2014 | Angel | - | $300K | - | - |
Who has invested in Lagou?
6 investors have backed Lagou across its funding rounds, including Qiming Venture Partners, BAI capital, Bertelsmann, Hongdao Capital, 51job and Bob Xiaoping Xu.
Lead investors include 51job, Hongdao Capital and Qiming Venture Partners.
Lagou Investors
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shanghai | 3 | Lead | Aug 2014 | |
 Gütersloh | 1 | Participant | Aug 2014 | |
| Bob Xiaoping Xu | Beijing | 1 | Participant | Sep 2017 |
| China | 1 | Lead | Sep 2017 | |
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all 6 Lagou investors. Start Free Trial | ||||
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Start Free TrialLagou Competitors
Lagou competitors include listed companies like Saramin, Gakujo and Freelance.com, and private ones like Howdy, Proxify and Joonko.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Austin, TX | Private | $17M | - | $105M | 6.2x | |
 Stockholm | Private | - | - | $95M | - | |
| New York City, NY | Private | - | - | $77M | - | |
 South Korea | Publicly listed | $88M | - | $132M | - | |
 Japan | Publicly listed | $71M | $18M | $151M | 1.5x | |
 France | Publicly listed | $1.2B | $41M | $162M | 0.1x |
Lagou Public Comps
Lagou is still privately-owned, but its public comps include Ework Group, Robert Walters, Mastech Digital, Amadeus Fire, Veteranpoolen, Atrae, Saramin, Gattaca, Staffline Group and Wantedly.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $1.4B | $18M | 0.1x | 0.1x | 6.9x | 8.3x | |||
| $1B | $10M | 0.2x | 0.2x | 16.3x | 9.9x | |||
| $191M | $4M | 0.3x | 0.3x | 15.5x | - | |||
| $419M | $44M | 0.4x | 0.4x | 4.0x | 3.3x | |||
| $67M | $7M | 1.8x | - | 15.9x | - | |||
| $49M | $11M | 2.2x | 2.0x | 9.4x | - | |||
| $88M | - | 0.0x | - | - | - | |||
| $536M | $5M | 0.1x | 0.1x | 9.8x | 4.8x | |||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Lagou competitors and their valuation data. Start Free Trial | ||||||||
Common questions about Lagou
| When was Lagou founded? | Lagou was founded in 2013. |
| Where is Lagou headquartered? | Lagou is headquartered in Beijing, China. |
| Is Lagou publicly listed? | No, Lagou is a private, VC-backed company. |
| What is Lagou's valuation? | Lagou was last valued at $100M in its Series A in March 2014. |
| How much funding has Lagou raised? | Lagou has raised $184M across 5 funding rounds. |
| What was Lagou's last funding round? | Lagou's last funding round was a $120M Series D in September 2017, led by 51job. |
| Who are Lagou's investors? | Lagou's investors include Qiming Venture Partners, Bertelsmann, Bob Xiaoping Xu, 51job, Hongdao Capital and BAI capital. |
| Which companies are comparable to Lagou? | Companies comparable to Lagou include Howdy, Proxify, Joonko, Saramin, Gakujo and Freelance.com. |
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