58 Home, the local services subsidiary of China-based classified listings service 58.com, raised $300m yesterday from investors including e-commerce company Alibaba and insurance firm Ping An.
The corporates were joined by investment firm KKR, and the three will collectively supply the funding through a share subscription. 58.com will maintain a majority stake in 58 Home, known as 58 Daojia in its home country, and which was valued at $1bn in the round.
58 Home is a platform that provides links users in around 30 Chinese cities to local services such as cleaning, moving, babysitting and beauty care. The cash will be spent on marketing, research and development, and 58 Daojia is also considering corporate venturing investments in local services startups.
Michael Jinbo Yao, chief executive of 58.com, said: “We are excited to welcome Alibaba, KKR and Ping An as partners as we develop 58 Home into an ecosystem that efficiently matches our many users with local service providers.
“The 300 million and growing population of digitally literate middle class consumers in China has created a huge but still nearly untapped market for online-to-offline home services. There is a strong need for experienced, trustworthy and effective home service professionals in China, and 58 Home is in a unique position to lead this local services revolution.”