China carpooling player Dida revives Hong Kong IPO bid
Dida, a PE-backed Chinese car-pooling and ride-hailing platform, has filed to list in Hong Kong – for the fourth time in three years. There are records of lapsed registrations from 2020, 2021, and earlier in 2023.
The company, formerly known as Dida Chuxing, has raised approximately USD 280m across five funding rounds from the likes of Nio Capital, IDG Capital, China Renaissance Capital Investment (CRCI), Bitauto, Hillhouse Investments, JD.com, Trip.com, and Trustbridge Partners, according to a prospectus.
Nio Capital, an investment firm established by the founder of electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Nio, is the largest external shareholder with 22.04%. It accounted for Dida’s entire Series D round of USD 29.1m in 2017 and approximately half the USD 135.6m Series E in 2018.
IDG, CRCI, and Bitauto are the next largest with 10.43%, 7.29%, and 5.05%, respectively. CRCI led the Series C in 2015, contributing half of the USD 100m raised. IDG was the company’s earliest backer – and sole provider of the USD 3m Series A in 2014 – and participated in every round apart from the Series D.
Founded in 2014, Dida was the second-largest carpooling platform in China last year, generating CNY 6.1bn (USD 838m) in gross transaction value (GTV) and facilitating 94.2m rides, according to Frost & Sullivan. The company’s app-based platform connects riders with similar travel itineraries. As of June, its pooling network comprises 15.2m certified private car owners across 366 cities.
Frost & Sullivan projects that the total GTV of China’s carpooling market will rise from CNY 19.1bn in 2022 to CNY 86.9bn in 2027.
Dida entered the smart taxi services space in 2017, focusing on online hailing and optimised roadside hailing. It is the second-largest player in the market with services covering 99 cities. The company operates smart taxi collaboration programmes with transportation authorities and taxi associations, and it provides cloud-based taxi management toolkits to taxi companies.
Revenue comes from service fees – charged to car owners participating in carpooling and to taxi drivers who secure rides through the ride-hailing service – and advertising. Revenue reached CNY 569m in 2022, down from CNY 780.6m in 2021, with carpooling accounting for approximately 90%.
Dida swung from a net loss of CNY 2.2bn to a profit of CNY 1.73bn and back to a loss of CNY 187.6m in 2020, 2021, and 2022. On an adjusted basis, it claims to be the only carpooling player in China to generate a profit for the past three consecutive years. Its adjusted net profit margin was 11.3% in 2022.
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