Suning Culture & Investment Management Company, a subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce giant Suning Commerce Group, has led an RMB 32m (US$ 4.944m) investment in CHAMPION (Chinese:上海创冰), a sports data company in China.

This Series A funding, co-invested by Shanghai Woti (Chinese: 上海沃体), brings the Shanghai-based data company’s estimated value to nearly RMB 200m (US$30.9m).

Founded in 2003, CHAMPION is a sports technology company that focuses on R&D, data collection and analysis. It provides data services with products including Cloud Platform, Soccer Master, Mobile Products and Media Master. CHAMPION has in the past been a partner of the Chinese Super League, Alisports, PPTV and many Chinese sports giants.

Suning’s involvement in sport began early in 2013, when it invested $250 million in the video website PPTV.com, which has helped it position itself as a major digital broadcaster of sports events in the country. Analysts believe that the recent move will add the business of sports data to Suning’s sports ecosystem.

Source: sports.online.sh.cn

Proofread by Sean O Diobhilin.