On April 23, Shanghai Holdfast Online Information Technology Co., Ltd. (Holdfast Online), a subsidiary under Shanda Group, affirmed that it received a large amount of investment and will be listed separately.

This is reportedly the Round C funding for Holdfast Online. The investors this round include Intel Capital, United Gain Investment, Shanghai International Asset Management (HK) Co., Ltd, and Singapore Hotung Group. The amount of capital has yet to be disclosed.

Haifa Zhu, Chief Investment Officer of Shanda Group and Chairman of the Board of Holdfast Online, said that Holdfast Online will not attract new investment before being listed. Yonglun Liang, CEO of Holdfast Online, said that the company will introduce more online and offline electronic sports games to users in the context of that the electronic sports industry witnessed a rapid development in China. Sources say as of 31st March 2008, the number of online users of Holdfast Online at the same time has exceeded 750,000, a 150% increase year on year. As a subsidiary of Shanda Group, Holdfast Online independently operates this transaction, with the aim to be listed separately.