China-based on-demand ride service Didi Chuxing closed a $4bn funding round today that included telecommunications firm SoftBank and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company, according to the New York Times.
The participants were disclosed by a person familiar with the investment, who said the deal valued Didi Chuxing at $56bn.
Didi Chuxing runs a Chinese ride hailing platform with 450 million registered users. In addition to taxis, it also offers car rental, carpooling, luxury and business transport, designated driver and urban bus services.
The company said part of the funding will be used for an international expansion that will start with Taiwan, where it has licensed its brand to local operator Ledi Technology.
Additional capital will go to the development of Didi Chuxing’s artificial intelligence technology and the exploration of new business directions, including the establishment of charging and service networks for electric vehicles.
SoftBank also participated in Didi Chuxing’s last round in April this year, investing $5bn as part of a $5.5bn round backed by Silver Lake Kraftwerk and financial services firms China Merchants Bank and Bank of Communications that valued the company at more than $50bn.
Didi Chuxing has now raised approximately $17.2bn in funding, including a $7.3bn debt and equity round in June 2016 that featured SoftBank as well as a $1bn investment by electronics producer Apple.
E-commerce firm Alibaba, its Ant Financial affiliate, insurance firm China Life, internet group Tencent and investment management firm BlackRock also took part in the $4.8bn equity portion of the 2016 round, which valued the company at $28bn.
Alibaba and Tencent had previously joined insurer Ping An’s corporate venturing unit, Ping An Ventures, China Investment Corp, Temasek, Capital International Private Equity Fund and Coatue Management to invest $3bn in the company in late 2015.
SoftBank and Alibaba had initially been investors in Didi Kuaidi, which merged with rival Didi Dache to form Didi Chuxing in 2015, after the corporates had joined Tiger Global Management to invest in a $600m series D round for the company earlier in the year.
Tencent, car rental service eHi, New Horizon Fund, DST Global, Matrix Partners and Citic PE were also investors pre-merger.