Temasek, Hillhouse invest in China’s Mobike

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The investment follows a $215 million Series D round led by Tencent Holdings and Warburg Pincus in early January, and a strategic investment from Taiwan-based manufacturing giant Foxconn Technology Group weeks later.

The latest funding brings the total raised by Mobike in 2017 to more than $300 million, the company said in a statement.

Mobike was co-founded by former executives at Uber China and Ford Motor in January 2015. By the end of that year trial operations were underway in Shanghai and the service officially launched in the city in April 2016.

It has since expanded into 21 cities, with more than 100,000 bikes in operation in each of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The company claims to have served over 10 million users, who have completed in excess of 200 million paid rides. According to iResearch Consulting, Mobike recorded 5.85 million weekly active users in the first week of 2017, the highest for the industry in China, and four-times more than its nearest rival, Ofo.

Hillhouse led Mobile’s Series C round – said to be worth more than $100 million – in late 2016, alongside Tencent and Warburg Pincus. It then re-upped for the Series D, joined by new backers including TPG Capital, travel booking platform Ctrip and Huazhu Hotels Group.

“The Mobike team is leading the industry because they have a clear vision for the future of urban transport, and they are relentlessly focused on enhancing the Mobike platform and services to enable them to achieve this vision,” said Lei Zhang, Hillhouse’s founder and CEO. “In particular, we believe that Mobike has huge potential for growth internationally.”

Other investors in Mobike from earlier rounds include Qiming Venture Partners, Bertelsmann Asia Investments, Joy Capital, Panda Capital, Temasek-controlled Vertex Ventures – which led an extended Series B round last year – and Sinovation Ventures.

Mobike plans to launch its service in Singapore in the first quarter of this year. The new funding has been earmarked for technology improvements, increased production capacity, expand team and brand promotion in overseas markets.

Ofo closed a $130 million Series C round in late 2016 across two tranches, having received backing from local ride-hailing app operator Didi Chuxing, smart phone maker Xiaomi and Shunwei Capital Partners.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Technology
• Expansion
• China
• TMT
• Venture
• Transportation
• Temasek Holdings
• Hillhouse Capital Management
• Growth capital