Baidu invests in another China ride-sharing app
Baidu has made its second investment in the Chinese ride-sharing app space in a matter of days, leading a Series C round for Tiantian Yongche, with participation from Sequoia Capital.
The deal size was not disclosed but the company said via its Weibo microblog that the valuation is close to $200 million. It follows Baidu's investment in 51yongche, which also counts Sequoia among its backers.
Tiantian Yongche was founded in July last year by Guanglong Zhai, who previously worked at group-buying website Meituan and was CEO of accommodation portal Mayi. Operated by Beijing Tian Heyi Tech Company, Tiantian Yongche enables private owners to connect with prospective passengers.
Users enter their itinerary into Tiantian Yongche's mobile app and get a price quotation based on their route and requested car type. Private car owners who match these requirements receive an alert and can decide whether or not to accept the passenger. A pre-payment is then made and pick-up details are negotiated.
The firm operates in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Hangzhou and Chengdu. It received a $3 million Series A round from Innovation Works last June, and a Series B round from Sequoia in February. The new capital will be used to hire more staff, improve product offerings and scale up the business in more Chinese cities.
In December, Baidu invested in US-based online car-ordering service provider Uber, with a view to helping the company expand in China. It is also said to have backed Yongche.com, which has a similar business model to Uber.
The dominant players among China's taxi-booking platforms are Alibaba Group-backed Kuadi Dache and Tencent Holdings-backed Didi Dache. Both companies have received substantial private equity and strategic backing, and earlier this year it was announced they would merge.
More on Greater China
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.