(Yicai Global) Aug. 29 -- Beijing Kuairu Technology, the firm behind WeChat wannabe Zidan Duanxin, has closed a CNY150 million (USD22 million) funding round just seven days after its software hit mobile app stores

Chengwei Capital and Gaorong Capital led the series, founder Luo Yonghao said on social media yesterday, adding that over 500 investment institutions expressed an interest in the program. He also shared an article from tech portal Kuai Keji that said the firm, which has already had investment from electronic device maker Smartisan Technology, could be worth as much as CNY600 million.

The chat app, meaning 'bullet message' in English, skyrocketed to the top of Apple's China App Store's list of most downloaded free programs this week. The software offers quicker messaging than rival WeChat by using rapid speech-to-text technology developed by Iflytek, a Chinese firm that specializes in speech recognition. The function is reportedly 97 percent accurate.

Zidan Duanxin, which is developing iPad and personal computer iterations, still differs from Tencent brainchild WeChat considerably. The newcomer lacks a social function allowing users to share pictures or links to their entire friend network at once, but looks like it plans to challenge the messaging giant in China's mobile payments sector, which saw transactions worth CNY81 trillion (USD12.8 trillion) take place last year.

Luo said that the company is looking at integrating Zidan Duanxin with Alipay, China's biggest third-party payment provider run by Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial. WeChat Pay and Alipay are stark rivals in the market, and command a combined share of around 90 percent.

Industry insiders are divided on how the app will square up to WeChat, with some feeling it can threaten the titan's dominant presence. But it has a long way to go if it wants to steal away the social media giant's billion monthly active users.

Editor: James Boynton