Microblogging platform Sina Weibo has agreed to invest $142m in Xiaoju Kuaizhi, the Cayman Islands holding company of China-based ride-sharing companies Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache announced a merger in February 2015, valuing the combined company at $6bn.
Coatue Management, Farallon Capital Management and a range of unnamed investors paid $600m in April for a portion of the common shares in the combined company owned by Kuaidi Dache’s management team, at a valuation of $8.8bn.
Kuaidi Dache raised $600m in January 2015 ahead of the merger in a round featuring SoftBank Internet, a subsidiary of telecommunications company SoftBank,e-commerce company Alibaba and Tiger Global. It had raised $735m in total from investors also including car rental firm eHi, Matrix Partners and New Horizons.
Didi Dache had secured $820m, closing a $700m series D round in December 2014 featuring internet company Tencent, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek and investment firm DST Global. Tencent also contributed to a $100m series C round in January 2014 and a $15m series B round in May 2013.
Kuaidi Dache and Didi Dache jointly cover 360 cities across China and oversee a fleet of around 1.35 million drivers. The merger has not yet officially closed and they continue to operate under their respective brands.