People visit the stand of Qihoo 360 during the 2015 Appliance and Electronics World Expo in Shanghai, Mar 13, 2015.[Photo/IC]

Another leading Chinese Internet company has joined the highly competitive crowdfunding sector, close on the heels of e-commerce giants JD.com Inc and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Qihoo 360 Technology Co Ltd, the Internet security company, said on Tuesday that its equity crowdfunding platform t.# raised more than 10 million yuan ($1.53 million) from 200 investors a day after launching its first crowdfunding project on Dec 29.

Zeng Chunqiang, CEO of t.#, said the platform will focus on quality, early-stage projects before the first round of financing.

"Startup companies will usually wait for six months or a year before the first round of financing after they receive funding from angel investors. But the ones that develop well will need a larger amount of investment for business expansion, about five months after the angel investment.

"We'll help those companies raise money via t.# and inject the money to them as quickly as possible, rather than spending three to five months negotiating with them like most venture-capital firms," he said.

This will significantly improve the efficiency of financing, he said. The investors' money will later be converted to equities after the early-stage businesses receive a new round of financing from venture-capital firms.

The platform will target middle-class investors who can take relatively high risks. It expects a typical equity crowdfunding project involving around 100 investors, each contributing a minimum of 30,000 yuan to 50,000 yuan.

Fang Xinghai, vice-chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said on Dec 25 that China will launch a pilot program on equity crowdfunding in 2016 and proceed step by step. Analysts expect the country to see a flurry of crowdfunding deals this year with equity crowdfunding likely to see a particularly fast growth.

A report published by wangdaizhijia.com, a Web portal that tracks the Internet finance industry said about 249 crowdfunding platforms were operating across 21 provinces as of the end of November.

During the month, about 8 million investors participated in crowdfunding, up 95 percent from the levels seen in October. The money raised was 1.08 billion yuan in November, up 33 percent from 814 million yuan a month earlier.

Of the 4,619 new projects in November, only 6 percent was equity crowdfunding, while the majority (77 percent) was reward-based crowdfunding, which offers rewards or perks to the crowd who contributed small amounts of capital to fund a project. Another 17 percent was good cause crowdfunding.

Several large Internet companies have launched their own crowdfunding sites. Alibaba's financial services affiliate launched a trial version of its crowdfunding platform in November.