China’s ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing raises over $4 bn in latest round of funding
21 Dec 2017
China's ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing has raised over $4 billion in its latest round of funding, the company said yesterday. The move is seen as posing a challenge to US rival Uber as the Chinese company looks to expand overseas.
According to Reuters, the latest investment valued Didi at over $50 billion, and also equips it with the cash needed to aggressively pursue expansion opportunities abroad.
Reuters reported earlier this month that Didi would launch in Mexico next year, marking Didi's first expansion of its services beyond China. Didi said on Tuesday that it was looking to bring its ride-hailing service to Taiwan.
According to Didi it intended to use the proceeds to "scale up investments in AI (artificial intelligence) talent and technologies, to further build up its intelligent driving and smart transportation capabilities, and to bring more innovative and diversified transportation services to broader communities around the world."
According to Didi the fundraising attracted both Chinese and international investors.
In an email to CNBC, Softbank of Japan said that it participated in the funding, but did not disclose the amount it had invested.
The Wall Street Journal which cited sources reported that Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala Capital also invested in the funding round.
The company has already raised $13 billion from investors including Alibaba, Tencent and Apple, and added that this newest round will go towards developing its artificial intelligence technology, as also international expansion and green vehicle initiative.
Didi however, did not disclose the names of the investors in the round. In a very brief statement announcing the funding, Didi said that ''Chinese and international institutions joined the latest fundraising round.''
TechCrunch said it understands that, with the investment, Didi's valuation stands at $56 billion, a jump on the $50 billion valuation in April when it closed $5.5 billion in fresh investment.