China-based bicycle rental service Hellobike has secured about $700m in series E1 funding from investors including conglomerate Fosun and Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate of e-commerce group Alibaba, Yicai reported today.
The corporates were joined by seven undisclosed investors. The funding is the first tranche of the company’s series E round and it is in the process of raising the rest. Electric vehicle developer WM Motor is taking part in the round but has not revealed in which tranche it is investing.
Hellobike is China’s third largest app-based bike sharing service by monthly active users, after Mobike and Ofo. It has 100 million registered users according to Kr Asia, up from the 80 million it claimed as of late 2017, and has a presence in 180 Chinese cities.
The company completed a $503m series D round in December 2017, raising cash from Ant Financial, WM Motor, Fosun subsidiary Fosun Capital and venture capital firms GGV Capital and Chengwei Capital across two tranches closed in the same month.
Hellobike received an undisclosed amount of funding from Chengwei and GGV across three rounds before WM Motor invested a nine-figure renminbi sum in July 2017.
Youon Ditan, an affiliate of bicycle transportation network Changzhou Youon Public Bicycle System backed by Ant Financial, Shenzhen Capital and IDG Capital, merged with Hellobike three months later.
Ant Financial is 33% owned by Alibaba and both are investors in Ofo, which received $866m last month in an equity and debt round led by Alibaba and backed by Ant Financial. Mobike was acquired by local services platform Meituan-Dianping for $2.7bn last week.