China-headquartered ride hailing service Didi Chuxing’s bicycle sharing subsidiary, Qingju, is set to complete a $600m series B round, 36Kr reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The equity funding is being raised alongside $400m in debt financing, though the prospective participants in the round have not been named.
Qingju operates a service spanning 200 Chinese cities that allows users to rent bicycles and electric bikes through its mobile app. It was launched in 2018 and integrated Didi’s moped rental app, Street Rabbit, the following year.
Didi provided $850m for the company in April 2020 alongside $150m from internet and telecommunications group SoftBank and Legend Capital, the venture capital firm launched by conglomerate Legend Holdings.
Tier-one and two cities have bicycle rental markets that are already largely saturated, according to 36Kr, which reported that Qingju has been working to expand into smaller urban centres which are more inclined toward mopeds and electric bikes than the larger cities.
The decision to prioritise electric mobility options in tier-three and four cities is also related to the choice of municipalities in larger cities to officially discourage motorised services in favour of pedal bikes.
Photo by Nissangeniss, c/o Wikimedia Commons.
