Physix FrontierB
ByteDance
Funding History
- Late Stage RoundUSD 1.8B — Amount: Approx. USD 1.8B; Post-money valuation: Approx. USD 180B; Led by: KKR / Sequoia / General Atlantic | This is ByteDance's last primary market financing to date. Subsequently, the company largely stopped raising new capital, instead managing its equity structure through periodic employee stock buybacks + secondary trades among investors—resetting implied valuations without issuing new shares. This mechanism is similar to companies like Stripe and Revolut, but on the largest global scale. | Source: Investor reports + Public compilations
- Pre-IPO RoundUSD 3B — Amount: Approx. USD 3B; USD 3,000,000,000; Post-money valuation: Approx. USD 75B; Led by: SoftBank Vision Fund / KKR | Within one year, valuation rose from USD 20B to USD 75B (3.75x). TikTok completed global expansion in 2017–2018 (acquiring Musical.ly), which was core to the valuation re-rating. Both SoftBank Vision Fund and KKR entered in this round. | Source: Investor Reports + Public Compilation
- Series D RoundUSD 1B — Amount: Approx. USD 1B+; $1,000,000,000+; Post-money valuation: Approx. USD 20B; Led by General Atlantic. Valuation jumped from USD 500M to USD 20B, a 40x increase in three years. Douyin's launch in Sept 2016 and explosion in 2017 directly drove the valuation surge. General Atlantic has remained a major shareholder since then but has reduced some positions through secondary transactions. | Source: Investor reports + Public compilation
- Series C RoundUSD 100M — Amount: approx. USD 100M; USD 100,000,000; Post-money valuation: approx. USD 500M; Led by Sequoia Capital China (now HSG) | Sequoia China led USD 100M investment, valuation USD 500M. Toutiao was in a user growth explosion phase. | Source: Investor reports + public compilation
- Series A RoundUSD 5M — Amount: Approx. USD 5M; $5,000,000; Led by SIG Asia Investments (SIG) | A USD 5M seed round, which became one of the largest single early investment returns globally later. SIG continued to add stakes and remains the largest single external shareholder today (approx. 15%). Its co-founder Jeff Yass has received considerable political attention due to the size of this holding and his identity as a US political donor. | Source: Investor reports + Public compilation