Internet travel agency Booking Holdings, previously known as Priceline Group, committed $500m to China-based ride hailing service Didi Chuxing. The transaction was part of a strategic partnership agreement, which will enable it to offer ride hailing services by Didi through its various platforms that include Booking.com, Priceline, Kayak, Cheapflights and OpenTable. This new funding came along with news that Didi is aiming to expand into foreign markets and challenge Uber. Didi is also looking to spin off its vehicle services arm in an IPO sized at up to $1.5bn.
Founded in 2012, Didi Chuxing runs a ride hailing platform in China with 550 million registered users to date. In addition to taxis, it also offers car rental, carpooling, luxury and business transport, designated driver and urban bus services, corporate lifts, bicycle rental as well as food delivery.
Didi has raised over $22bn of funding to date in various corporate-backed round, as the GCV Analytics chart here indicates. The last large round we reported on the pages of our magazine was back in December, when it closed $4bn deal, featuring telecoms firm SoftBank as well as a government backer – Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company. Throughout this year, Didi also made headlines when it announced its acquisition of a majority stake in Brazil-based ride hailing company 99 for $600m. It was also reported that Didi was considering an IPO that could value it at up to $80bn.
