Alibaba, Ant Financial to re-up in China’s Didi Chuxing
Alibaba Group and its financial affiliate Ant Financial plan to invest a further $400 million in Didi Chuxing. This comes as the Chinese ride-hailing app operator is raising a new round of fund said to be as large as $2.5 billion.
Alibaba has agreed to invest $200 million while Ant Financial will put in the same amount, the Chinese e-commerce giant said in its annual report. As part of the transaction, Didi will adopt navigation and map services provided by Alibaba-owned AutoNavi, with a view to increasing the user base and usage of AutoNavi's services.
Two weeks ago, Didi announced a $1 billion commitment from Apple, which represents the single largest investment the Chinese company has ever received. Several well-known financial and industry investors have committed capital as part of the new funding round, Didi said in a statement.
Alibaba initially supported Kuaidi Dache - another Chinese ride-hailing app - which merged with its rival Tencent Holdings-backed Didi Kuaiche in February of last year. The combined entity was rebranded as Didi Chuxing and Alibaba holds a 10% stake in it.
Didi Chuxing closed a $3 billion funding round last September, which was said to be the largest-ever fundraise by a private internet company globally at the time. It then raised an undisclosed sum from China Merchants Bank earlier this year. The $3 billion round was surpassed last month by Ant Financial, which raised $4.5 billion in Series B funding.
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