Xiaohongshu, China’s fastest-growing social media platform, has gained the backing of venture capital firm DST Global in a rare example of foreign investors putting money into a tech sector it has largely shunned since a Beijing crackdown. 

The photo and video-sharing platform, wildly popular with female city dwellers, arranged stake sales of existing shares in recent weeks to current and new investors that valued the company at $17bn, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. 

DST, founded by Moscow-born Israeli tech entrepreneur Yuri Milner and a past investor in Facebook, took part in the round along with Hong Kong-based HongShan, formerly Sequoia China, which added to its existing stake. Chinese private equity firms Hillhouse Investment, Boyu Capital and Citic Capital also invested. The size of DST’s investment could not be ascertained.