Cainiao Networks, the logistics division of e-commerce group Alibaba, paid $290m for a controlling stake in China-based retail delivery service Dianwoda today.
Founded in 2009, Dianwoda operates an outsourced delivery service that connects shops with drivers that can deliver their stock to customers. It focuses on delivering foods and other consumer goods from supermarkets.
The company claims to have signed up of more than 3 million drivers across more than 300 Chinese cities to its platform, and to have attracted more than 1 million stores as clients, processing almost 100 million deliveries per day.
Cainiao will cooperate with Dianwoda on warehousing services as well as the provision of local and inter-city deliveries.
Venture capital firm Gobi Partners provided $2m of series A funding for Dianwoda in 2012, before the company pulled in an eight-figure dollar amount from SAIF Partners China, Telescope Investment and Qiaojing Venture Capital two years later, according to Technode.
Koubei, the local services platform formed by Alibaba and its Ant Financial affiliate, invested an undisclosed amount in the company in 2015, and Alibaba supplied a further $150m in a 2016 series D round according to the Wall Street Journal.