Following a series of high-profile investments, Didi Chuxing, the company behind China’s top ride-hailing app, has announced the closure of their $7.3 billion USD round.
Earlier this week Didi announced a $600 million USD investment from state-backed insurance company China Life, which followed a $1 billion USD investment from Apple in May. We now have a more comprehensive overview of investors in the round, with some of the top names listed below:
- Apple
- China Life
- Ant Financial
- Tencent
- Alibaba
- China Merchant’s Bank
- Softbank
With the exception of Apple and China Life, which is also an Uber-backer, the final list of high-profile investors doesn’t reveal any surprises as they are previous investors. Alibaba and Tencent were investors in Kuaidi and Didi respectively before they merged to make Didi Chuxing. Interestingly, this is the first investment in the ride-hailing firm by Alibaba’s finance arm Ant Financial.
The $7.3 billion USD injection is made up of $4.5 billion USD equity investment, with the remaining $2.8 billion made up of strategic financial arrangements from the round’s two significant state-backed investors. China Life committed to a long-term debt investment of 2 billion yuan (about $300 million USD), while China Merchant’s Bank agreed to become the lead arranger for a syndicated loan worth $2.5 billion USD.
The round values Didi at approximately 25 billion USD, and the company claims to have $10.5 billion USD in disposable funds now in their arsenal. This is a significant tool for the company which continues to run an extensive subsidies program in their battle against Uber in China.
Didi founder Cheng Wei said in a statement this morning that he was “inspired” by the support form the new investors. The company says they will use the proceeds of the round to upgrade their big data operations, improving user experience and exploring new business lines.