E-commerce startup planning US float

E-commerce website Pinduoduo, which offers low-price items based on a group-buying model, is seeking to raise at least $1 billion in a United States IPO as it looks to challenge bigger domestic rivals such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

A new entrant to China's 6.1 trillion yuan ($920 billion) online shopping arena, Pinduoduo saw revenue more than triple to $278 million in 2017, according to its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over the weekend, under the name Walnut Street Group Holding Ltd.

Its losses rose 55 percent to 525 million yuan, while transaction volumes reached 141.2 billion yuan.