APUS Group Becomes the Youngest $1 Billion Company to Be Recognized by the Wall ...

BEIJING, Aug. 25, 2015 – APUS Group, a Beijing-based utility app developer, entered the Wall Street Journal’s Billion Dollar Startup Club this August, becoming the world’s youngest ever “unicorn” company.

The one-year-old mobile internet company secured a spot in the latest list of billion-dollar startups released by the WSJ in conjunction with Dow Jones VentureSource. Other big names on the list include Uber, and the Chinese phone maker, Xiaomi.

The nickname “unicorn” company is used in the investment industry to describe a startup whose valuation has exceeded $1 billion. The United States dominated the 112-member list with 73 “unicorns,” followed by Asia (27) and Europe (10).

APUS, founded in June of 2014, is the youngest club member. On average, club members were in operation for eight years before earning their spots on the list. APUS Group is the only Chinese company on the list with a focus on overseas markets.

Northern Light Venture Capital and Redpoint Ventures invested a total of 100 million RMB (16 million U.S. dollars) in APUS in A-round financing in June of 2014. Six months later, Chengwei Capital, SIG and Qiming Venture Partners jointly invested $100 million in B-round financing.

The companies in the Billion Dollar Startup Club accounted for only 0.4 percent of nearly 20,000 startups backed by venture capital firms since 2011.

“Our mission is to provide the best smartphone and mobile Internet experience to the world’s five billion smartphone users,” said Li Tao, APUS founder and president.

Now, APUS Group is continuing to expand and develop its APUS User System, a comprehensive family of apps including APUS Launcher, APUS Boost, APUS Headline, etc that improve the performance of all Android smartphones.

Download APUS Launcher on Google Play

Direct Download APUS Launcher APK