Blued’s Parent Company Files For Nasdaq Listing

BlueCity Holdings, the parent company of Chinese gay dating app Blued, is aiming to raise $50 million from an initial public offering of American depository shares.

The company filed to US Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday but is yet to finalise a price for the shares. It has been working towards a listing on the Nasdaq global market for more than a year now, and reported in August 2019 that it hoped to achieve a valuation of $1 billion.

BlueCity wants to use the money raised from the potential IPO to expand into more international markets and invest in new AI technology.

According to Reuters, Founder and CEO of BlueCity Ma Baoli wrote in the prospectus: “Being a public company will encourage us to continue expanding our brand globally, improving our corporate governance and optimizing our products and services for the LGBTQ community.”

However, the plans had taken a slight stepback as the company is no longer getting help from Swiss investment bank UBS. 

The ongoing trade war between the US and China has caused a number of major banks to pull out of US-based IPOs for Chinese companies, because of concerns over investor demands.

Earlier this year, BlueCity also lost assistance from Credit Suisse for undisclosed reasons.

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