Singapore-based ride hailing app operator GrabTaxi confirmed a $350m series E round today featuring investors including China-based counterpart Didi Kuaidi.
The round, reported on Friday to be sized at $400m, also included sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation (CIC) and hedge fund Coatue Management, the company said in a statement.
Japan-based telecommunications and internet company SoftBank and hedge fund Tiger Global Management took part in the $200m first tranche of the round, led by Coatue, which closed in July this year.
GrabTaxi runs a ride ordering app that operates in 26 cities across six Southeast Asian countries. Cheryl Goh, the company’s group vice president of marketing, told TechCrunch that the money will support local expansion.
“We believe that this is a winner-take-all market and that it is important to invest in growth in the near-term,” Goh said.
“We still believe that Southeast Asia has considerable potential to grow and the transportation ecosystems of the region can be refined further, so we’re keeping our focus on building our presence here.”
GrabTaxi has now raised about $690m in total, including the $250m paid by SoftBank in December 2014 for a 40% stake. Its existing backers also include China-based online travel agency Qunar, GGV Capital, the state-backed Vertex Venture Holdings and Hillhouse Capital Management.
As we detailed on Monday, Tiger Global, Coatue and CIC are also investors in Didi Kuaidi, while Tiger Global and SoftBank are backers of India-based ride sharing company Ola. Their involvement in the round suggests that an Asian alliance to fight off US-based encroacher Uber could be on the cards.