Didi Chuxing, a China-based on-demand ride provider backed by multiple corporates, is looking to secure up to $2bn in funding, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The round would be raised at a flat valuation, which stood at a reported $56bn when Didi last raised funding, collecting $500m from travel services provider Booking Holdings in July 2018.
Didi Chuxing, which emerged out of the merger of Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache in 2015, is a transportation company spanning on-demand ride hailing, electric bikes, buses, car rental and food delivery.
Didi also offers financial services and is working on artificial intelligence and self-driving technologies. It initially focused on China, where it has acquired rival Uber’s subsidiary, but has since expanded into markets including Mexico and Australia.
Reports of the $2bn round follow rumours in May 2019 that carmaker Toyota was exploring a $549m investment in Didi, though this does not appear to have come to fruition yet. It is unclear if Toyota’s commitment would form part of the $2bn total.
Didi Chuxing has obtained approximately $17.7bn in equity and debt financing to date – including capital raised before the merger from e-commerce group Alibaba, telecoms giant SoftBank, internet company Tencent and car rental service eHi.
Tiger Global Management, New Horizon Fund, DST Global, Matrix Partners, GSR Ventures and Citic PE were also investors before the merger.
Ping An Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of insurance provider Ping An, China Investment Corp and Capital International Private Equity Fund co-led a $3bn round in 2015, with contributions from Alibaba, Tencent, Temasek and Coatue Management.
Alibaba and its financial services affiliate Ant Financial subsequently contributed to a $4.5bn round in 2016 alongside SoftBank, Tencent, consumer electronics producer Apple, insurance provider China Life and Blackrock.
China Life and China Merchants Bank concurrently supplied $2.8bn of debt financing.
SoftBank and China Merchants Bank returned in April 2017 for a $5.5bn round that included Silver Lake Kraftwerk and Bank of Communications, before the telecommunications conglomerate joined Mubadala Investment Company for a $4bn investment that December.
