The overlapping links between Silicon Valley’s hottest companies, Asian technology titans and fast growing emerging market rivals just keep on proliferating.
You don’t get more strategic than the latest investment to emerge.
Ride-sharing app Didi Kuaidi, e-commerce company Alibaba and internet company Tencent were among the backers of US-based ride-sharing app Lyft’s $680m series E round, the Wall Street Journal revealed.
This in turn follows Didi Kuaidi securing $3bn last week itself from insurance firm Ping An, Alibaba, Tencent, and others. This is a round, which had followed US peer Uber’s local subsidiary Uber China, which in turn received $1.2bn in a round led by search engine provider Baidu.
The dizzying sums of money being spent on the future of ride sharing, seems to see Baidu and Uber lining up in one corner and Didi Kuaidi, Lyft, Alibaba and Tencent in another.
This bonfire of capital to create the phoenix which owns the future of transport, is going to burn very brightly indeed.