Chinese social media app RedNote, known domestically as Xiaohongshu, has crossed a valuation of $26 billion, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, amid market speculation that its initial public offering (IPO) could happen as soon as this year.
The report cited a share transaction document from GSR Ventures showing that the US-based venture capital (VC) firm held an 8.47% stake in the app, and the value of that stake reached $2.22 billion by the end of March. That translates into a valuation of $26.2 billion for RedNote.
The valuation spike gave a boost to GSR Ventures’s fund assets, with RedNote accounting for 91% of its fourth venture fund’s assets at the time of the filing.
With China’s ByteDance-owned TikTok still facing a ban in the US, RedNote is seen as an alternative, as it has already attracted millions of US TikTok users since January.
While RedNote operates like Instagram, allowing users to share a wide variety of content in text, photos, and videos, its e-commerce functionality features a more immersive and algorithm-driven, tailored online shopping experience that allows its users to directly purchase products via the app or being redirected to the product page of Alibaba-owned e-commerce app Taobao. Alibaba is a shareholder of RedNote.
Founded in 2013 by Charlwin Mao and Miranda Qu, RedNote has about 300 million monthly active users (MAUs). Its net profit is estimated to have crossed $1 billion in 2024.
