Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate of e-commerce group Alibaba, has invested an undisclosed amount in China-based bicycle sharing service Ofo, China Money Network has reported.
Ofo runs an app-based bicycle rental service that enables users to unlock the bikes using their smartphones, and is one of several rival companies that have taken in considerable amounts of funding in the sector over the past year.
Investment firm DST Global led a $450m series D round for Ofo a few weeks ago that also featured ride hailing service Didi Chuxing, Citic Private Equity, Matrix Partners and Coatue Management, and which valued Ofo at more than $1bn.
The company had secured $130m in an October 2016 series C round backed by Didi Chuxing, Citic Private Equity, Matrix Partners, Coatue Management, Vision Plus Capital, GSR Ventures, Yuri Milner and, reportedly, mobile device producer Xiaomi.
The deal comes in the wake of a partnership agreement the Ofo and Ant Financial signed last month. Ant Financial has international expansion plans which will likely be aided by Ofo’s own global growth.
Ofo has already expanded into the US, UK and Singapore, and the company intends to have a presence in 20 markets including Japan, Germany and the Philippines by the end of 2017.