Qihoo 360

Qihoo 360 is a Chinese internet security company whose ecosystem spans over 10 billion connected devices, making it what FreeS Fund described as "the world's largest security company" at the time of 360 Finance's 2018 IPO . The company operates as an internet platform with substantial traffic and user acquisition advantages, which it has leveraged to build or partner with businesses in adjacent sectors—notably fintech through 360 Finance (later 360 DigiTech), which listed on NASDAQ in December 2018 with the ticker QFIN .

In the venture capital landscape, Qihoo 360 appears as both a strategic partner and a reference point for founder networks. Multiple fund profiles, including Gaorong Ventures' 2018 materials, listed 360 among the companies whose founders served as entrepreneur LPs, alongside Tencent, Baidu, Xiaomi, and Meituan . Separately, SoundAI Technology, a voice AI startup, named 360 as one of its technology partners alongside Huawei, Tencent, Alibaba, and Xiaomi in a 2019 survey of chip industry executives .

The 2018-2019 period marked a notable inflection for 360's corporate strategy: while its core security business provided data and risk control infrastructure, it was also actively spinning out and backing fintech ventures. 360 Finance's founding team, led by CEO Xu Jun, merged with Youdao Wealth—a FreeS Fund portfolio company—in a deal that FreeS helped orchestrate, with 360 providing brand and technology backing . The fintech arm positioned itself as a "technology platform" connecting users with financial partners, built on 360's AI and big data capabilities .

elsewhere's corpus does not contain more recent material on Qihoo 360's strategic evolution beyond its 2018-era positioning as a security-rooted internet platform and fintech enabler.