China’s largest ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing announced on Thursday to have completed a USD 7.3 billion financing round, including USD 4.5 billion in equity fundraising from Apple, China Life, Ant Financial and other new shareholders.
The rest of the funding comes from China Life Insurance, which offered a long-term debt investment of RMB two billion (USD 300 million), and the existing investor China Merchants Bank, which acted as the lead arranger for a syndicated loan facility of USD 2.5 billion. Other existing investors include Tencent, Alibaba, and SoftBank.
Both Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group said that they will continue to work with Didi for a more efficient mobile internet environment where ordinary citizens can benefit.
This is one of the largest private equity funding rounds in the world, meaning Didi has received a total USD 10.5 billion in external funding thus far.
According to Didi, the funding will be used for technology upgrades, big data research and operations, investments in improving the experience of its 300 million registered users and 15 million registered drivers, as well as explorations into new business opportunities.
For future development, Didi Chuxing has network efficiencies and a big data-driven intelligent dispatch system which now facilitates around 14 million rides daily, covering over 400 Chinese cities. The company aims to serve 30 million passengers daily by 2018, with an estimated time of arrival shorter than three minutes.
Cheng Wei, founder and CEO of DiDi, said, “In just four years, DiDi has created a firm lead in China’s mobile transportation sector. With our advantages in technology, platform synergies and talented team, DiDi is prepared to continue this momentum of growth.”
(Top photo from baidu images)