April 30 (Reuters) - Ximalaya, backed by China's Tencent Holdings , filed for an initial public offering $(IPO.UK)$ in the United States on Friday, cashing in on growing demand as more people tune in to podcasts while staying at home during the pandemic.
China's Qiniu Ltd, a cloud-based platform-as-a-service provider backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd , also filed paperwork for a U.S. IPO.
The largest online audio platform in China, Ximalaya had 250 million average monthly average users in the first quarter of 2021, according to a regulatory filing.
Ximalaya, which provides a platform for users to access free or paid content from professional or amateur providers, was valued at $3.71 billion as of July 2018, according to PitchBook. It has raised $225 million in funds from investors including General Atlantic and Tencent.
Founded in 2012, Ximalaya's revenue increased by more than 48% from a year earlier to around 4 billion yuan ($617.95 million) in 2020.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley , BofA Securities and CICC are underwriters on Ximalaya's offering.
Qiniu and Ximalaya did not disclose any other details about their listing plans on Friday.
($1 = 6.4730 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Sohini Podder in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)