DST Sets Up New Fund, Invests In China's Largest Online Retailer

Digital Sky Techologies has set up a new fund called DST Global -2, reports Techrunch, quoting Russian newspapers. The DST Global website in the meanwhile, continues to be a stark one-pager, with the company's email in blue over a white background. For all the information you have ever wanted on DST, you may want to read VCCircle's Special Feature on the company.

DST is joining a group of investors who've put hundreds of million dollars in 360buy.com, to acquire a stake in the website, adds the Techcrunch report. 360buy.com is China's largest online B2C retailer. Walmart happens to be one of its strategic investors. "This would be the largest amount of financing in the Chinese Internet industry," a Business China report quotes Liu Qiangdong, the president and chief executive officer of 36buy.com, as saying.

China is among the largest e-commerce markets in the world. It is also among the fastest. (Here is a fun fact: In a recently concluded E-commerce event in New Delhi, co-hosted by Techcircle.in, industry honchos said they believed China's e-commerce landscape was about 7.5 years ahead of India). DST Global-2 has already invested in Groupon, and is reportedly investing $50M in exchange for a 5% stake in Spotify. Groupon is a deal-of-the-day website that is localized to major markets in the United States. Spotify is an online music service offering users the ability to stream more than 10 million tracks on demand. It has a huge fan following, including celebrities like Stephen Fry and Mark Zuckerberg. Sean Parker (he of the Napster, Plaxo and Facebook fame) is an advisor to Spotify. (Incidentally, Parker is planning to buy Warner Music Group).