China bike-sharing start-up Ofo raises $450m Series D

Other investors in the round include local ride-hailing app operator Didi Chuxing, CITIC Private Equity, Matrix Partners China, US hedge fund Coatue Management, London-based VC firm Atomico, and Chinese conglomerate Macrolink Group, the company confirmed to local media.

Ofo launched on the campus of Peking University as part of a student bike-sharing project in 2015 and has since expanded into other schools. Users park their bikes wherever they want and rely on a mobile app to find available bikes parked nearby. The company now provides over one million bikes across 40 cities in China, Singapore, the UK and the US. It has about 20 million registered users.

Last February, the start-up raised a Series A round from GSR, ZhenFund, Beijing Dongfang Hongdao Asset Management and angel investor Gang Wang across two tranches. Seven months later, Matrix China provided a Series B round. In October last year, Ofo raised a $130 million Series C round across two tranches. Didi Chuxing, Coatue, smart phone maker Xiaomi and Shunwei Capital Partners are among the investors.

Bicycle-sharing start-ups are the latest investor craze in China's technology-enabled transportation space. Ofo competes with Mobike, which has raised more than $300 million in 2017, including a strategic investment from Temasek Holdings two weeks ago. Another smaller player Bluegogo also raised a RMB400 million ($58 million) funding round led by domestic GP Black Hole Capital.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Consumer
• Technology
• Expansion
• China
• TMT
• Venture
• Transportation
• DST Advisors
• Citic Private Equity
• Matrix Partners