Insurance group China Life provided $605m in debt and equity financing for China-based ride hailing platform Didi Chuxing today, supplying $300m in equity and RMB2bn ($305m) in debt.
The equity capital will form part of a funding round that already includes a $1bn investment by hardware producer Apple.
The round, which a spokesperson told TechCrunch is now larger than $3.5bn and is yet to close, will also likely include $200m each from e-commerce group Alibaba and its financial services affiliate Ant Financial.
Formed by the merger of ride ordering apps Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache and formerly known as Didi Kuaidi, Didi Chuxing supplies taxi booking services in 360 Chinese cities and carpooling services in some 300, as well as chuaffered cars and bus transport.
China Life’s investment is perhaps significant in that it reportedly provided an undisclosed amount of funding for Didi Chuxing’s US-based rival Uber in 2015, though reports it is an investor in its Uber China subsidiary were false, a spokesperson told TechCrunch.
The deal will also herald the start of a strategic partnership, a statement announcing the investment saying: “The two parties will also collaborate on investment opportunities in mobile transportation and related sectors in China and beyond.”
The cash brings the company’s overall funding to $6.5bn since its formation, $3bn of which came from a 2015 round featuring Alibaba, insurance group Ping An, internet company Tencent, Temasek, China Investment Corp, Capital International Private Equity Fund and Coatue Management.
Other Didi Chuxing investors include online messaging platform Sina Weibo, telecommunications company SoftBank, car rental firm eHi, automotive manufacturer Beijing Automotive, DST Global, Matrix Partners, New Horizon Fund and Citic PE.
Sources told Reuters last month Didi Chuxing aims to eventually launch an initial public offering in the US, probably in 2018.