Online grocery firm Dada Nexus Ltd filed for an initial public offering, making it the latest Chinese firm to opt for a US listing after a strong debut by Kingsoft Cloud Holdings.
Dada, which is a joint venture company of Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com, set a place-holder amount of up to $100 million and did not specify the size of its offering.
Last year, media outlets reported that Dada is looking to raise around $500 million in its flotation.
In a regulatory filing, the company said funds associated with venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and JD Sunflower Investment Ltd are among its principal shareholders.
On-Demand Retail Platform
Dada operates JD-Daojia, a local on-demand retail platform and Dada Now, a local on-demand delivery platform.
The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged global capital markets in the past two months and slammed the brakes on IPOs. In January, buyout firm Carlyle Group Inc delayed the US IPO of its German specialty chemicals group Atotech.
Companies including Cole Haan Inc and 58 Home have also put their IPO plans on hold.
However, Kingsoft's shares popped over 25% last week after the company raised $510 million in its IPO.
In 2018, Dada raised $500 million from US retailer Walmart Inc and JD.com.
Dada's net loss available to ordinary shareholders last year widened to 2.46 billion yuan ($347 million at current exchange rates) from 2.39 billion RMB in 2018.
Goldman Sachs, BofA Securities and Jefferies are the lead underwriters to Dada's offering.
