Ingka Investments, a subsidiary of furniture retailer Ingka Group, has led a $100m series C round for China-based electric vehicle rental services provider DST that was also backed by public transport operator SMRT.
SMRT took part in the round through its corporate venture capital arm, SMRT Ventures, while China Securities Investment Capital, Bojiang Capital and Matrix Partners China filled out the list of participants.
DST, which is also known as Dishangtie, was founded in 2015 and provides electric vehicle (EV) rental services for the logistics market. The business has close to 40,000 EVs in its vehicle fleet which operate across 200 cities in China.
The company’’s offline services are supported by a network of operation branches, charging sites, maintenance stations and third-party service providers. DST also operates an online platform that lets users monitor vehicle data and battery data as well as record route information.
DST will deploy the funding by entering new international markets and expanding its maintenance network.
DST received tens of millions of dollars in a series C1 round in January 2020 that was led by Asian Environment Fund, an investment vehicle managed by Olympus Capital, while diversified trading group Itochu and Jeneration Capital also took part.
The latter two participated in DST’s $100m series B round in June 2019, which was backed by financial services firm Far East Horizon, Bojiang Capital, Idinvest Partners, Qiming Venture Capital and Matrix Partners China.
The company also collected $47m in a series B round in 2018 that was co-led by Qiming Venture Partners and Matrix Partners China, while China Power Investment and Zhongding Venture Capital also featured.