VC-backed Dada Nexus merges with JD’s O2O business
Dada Nexus, a China-based crowdsourcing delivery platform backed by several VC investors, has agreed to merge with JD Daojia, the online-to-offline (O2O) business unit of e-commerce giant JD.com.
As part of the agreement, JD.com will inject its existing O2O resources and $200 million in cash into the combined entity, in exchange for a 47.4% stake, according to a release. The new company will continue to operate under the Dada brand. Dada CEO Philip Kuai, and JD Daojia President Zhijun Wang, will serve as CEO and president, respectively.
By leveraging the combined crowdsourcing network of Dada and JD Daojia, the new company is expected to provide low-cost delivery services to China's retailers, service providers and O2O enterprises, with increased efficiencies, JD.com said.
JD Daojia was launched in April of last year, providing consumers two-hour delivery of products from local supermarkets through its location-based app. In the first 12 months of operation, JD Daojia has served over three million customers in 13 cities supported by its parent company's existing logistics infrastructure.
Listed in the US, JD.com owns seven fulfillment centers and a total of 213 warehouses in 50 Chinese cities. It runs more than 5,000 delivery and pick-up centers nationwide, staffed by its own employees. JD's O2O supermarket platform will continue using the JD Daojia brand upon completion of the transaction.
Founded in 2014, Dada offers last-mile delivery services through a crowdsourcing model both online and offline. It claims to complete a daily average of one million deliveries in 37 cities for 300,000 merchants, relying on the 1.3 million third-party delivery personnel registered on the platform. The company sources delivery orders through partnerships with food-ordering platform Ele.me, as well as O2O service providers such as Meituan and Alibaba Group's Koubei.
Dada raised a Series A round from Sequoia Capital and a Series B round from undisclosed private equity and super angel investors in 2014. It completed two more rounds of funding last year, including a $100 million Series C round led by DST Global, and a $300 million Series D round co-led by DST and Sequoia, Dada said on its website.
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