Lightspeed leads $10m round for China P2P car-sharing site uuzuche

China Renaissance K2 Ventures and angel investor Wang Gang also participated.

Car owners and drivers join the company's membership program through a UU-rental mobile application and can then share cars. Uuzuche currently operates in four major cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Sanya - with over 10,000 car owners on the platform.

The company differs from other car-sharing platforms in that it focuses solely on P2P services. It claims to undercut traditional car rental costs by 30%. To strengthen its offering, uuzuche formed a partnership with Allianz Global Assistance to provide support services such as battery charging, tire changes and oil top-ups. It also works with SAIC Motors to offer car dealership services.

The proceeds of this latest investment will be used to expand services to other tier- one and tier-two cities, teambuilding and brand building. The company expects to cover all major Chinese cities by June of next year.

Han Yan, a partner at Lightspeed, said in a release that P2P car-sharing is already a mature business model in foreign countries. He added that uuzuche "not only can help to optimize a city's vehicle resources and help create a well-structured environment, but also can help with the remission of traffic and encouraging greener driving patterns."

Last week, Qiming provided $10 million in funding for Zuzuche.com, a Chinese third-party car rental platform. Earlier this month, Singapore sovereign investor GIC Private led a reported $100 million Series C round of funding for car rental and taxi-booking site Yongche.com, which has a similar business model to Uber.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• Greater China
• Venture
• Consumer
• Technology
• China
• TMT
• Lightspeed Venture Partners
• China Renaissance Capital Investment
• Transportation
• Consumer
• Venture