China-based online food delivery service Ele.me confirmed a $630m series F round featuring retail chain Hualian Group that valued it at more than $3bn, according to Forbes.
The round also included Citic Private Equity, China Media Capital, Gopher Asset and, according to Tencent Tech, internet services provider Tencent, online marketplace JD.com and venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.
Hualian supplied $90m of the funding while Horizon Ventures and Slender West Lake Investment also committed funds, according to a regulatory filing. Hualian’s share of the funding was originally reported yesterday.
Ele.me operates an online service through which customers can order food to be delivered from local restaurants. It is present in 260 Chinese cities and processes RMB 60m ($9.4m) of orders each day.
The capital will enable Ele.me to compete with larger, more diversified internet and e-commerce companies such as Alibaba and Baidu which are beginning to invest serious money in their own rival services.
Hualian and Ele.me are forming a partnership to that end which will involve Ele.me organising home deliveries from its supermarket chains, though it is currently unclear as to whether those will consist of hot meals or everyday products.
Ele.me has now raised about $1.09bn since it was founded in 2009. It secured $350m in a January 2015 series E round backed by JD, Tencent, online restaurants review service Dianping, Sequoia and Citic PE.
Dianping had previously provided $80m in series D funding for Ele.me in May 2014, which followed a $25m series C round featuring Sequoia, GSR Ventures and Matrix Partners the year before.