Rhea Liu
Ride-hailing app UCAR raised USD 550 million in a B-series round of funding including USD 50 million from China Auto Rental (CAR Inc.), primary investor CAR Inc. announced today.
According to the announcement, investors including Tourmaline, Harmony, Lu Zhengyao – the CEO of CAR Inc. – and Haode Investment participated in the B-series funding. After this round of funding, UCAR’s valuation will be at USD 3.55 billion.
Two months ago, UCAR raised USD 250 million from investors including CAR Inc. and Legend Holdings, the parent company of Lenovo. Haode Investment, who holds 22.4% of the total issued and outstanding shares of UCAR, is wholly owned by Lu’s spouse, Ms. Guo Lichun, the announcement said.
In an investor meeting prior to the announcement, Lu said that UCAR was ready to invest at least USD 2.5 billion in new users with no cap on investment, Yangcheng Evening News reported.
UCAR was launched by CAR Inc. in January this year targeting the business-car-hailing sector. Cars used by UCAR are owned by auto rental companies like CAR Inc., instead of being privately-owned as is normally the case with other riding-hailing businesses, like those of Uber and Didi Chuxing.
As of June, Didi Chuxing accounted for 80.2% of the ride-hailing business in China while UCAR only accounted for 0.8%, below Uber and Yidao Yongche’s market share, which together accounted for close to 20% in China, according to a report released by CNIT-Research.
It’s reported new regulations against the ride-hailing business are about to launch in China which may prohibit private cars from business use. UCAR’s model of renting business cars from third parties may adjust well to the new regulations.
