Tencent Holdings Ltd has led a pre-IPO investment of more than US$100 million in Chinese personalized news recommendation app Qutoutiao, valuing the start-up between US$1.3 billion to US$1.5 billion, according to local media. Qutoutiao, which means "happy headline" in English, is rumored to be seeking a U.S. initial public offering of up to US$3 billion as early as this year. Neither Tencent nor Qutoutiao responded immediately to China Money Network’s email seeking comments. The investment illustrates Tencent’s ambition to expand in news-related media and further rival Toutiao, the personalized news unicorn with a valuation of US$20 billion.