Didi Chuxing, Uber’s homegrown Chinese ride-hailing rival, has closed a $7.3 billion funding round.
The company has recently raised $4.5 billion in new investment, including a previously announced $1 billion investment from Apple, $600 million from China Life Insurance, along with additional financing from Ant Financial and other new and existing investors, Didi Chuxing confirmed late on Wednesday. Coins2Day has learned that Oppenheimer and BlackRock, the latter an investor in Uber, also participated in this latest round, and that Didi’s new valuation is now close to $28 billion, according to sources close to the deal.
The Wall Street Journal first reported news of Didi’s monster funding round on Wednesday.
With China becoming the new battleground for the ride-hailing wars, both Didi Chuxing and Uber have been raising gargantuan sums and spending that money heavily on their operations, expansion, and likely into research and development into driverless cars. Uber recently closed a $5 billion round that included $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia’s main investment fund and an undisclosed sum from Toyota.
Both Uber and Didi are also reportedly turning to debt financing to supplement their influx of investments. Following a report on Tuesday that Uber has tapped Morgan Stanley and Barclay’s for a $1 billion to $2 billion loan, China Merchants Bank has also signed on to lead the syndication of a loan to Didi for up to $2.5 billion. China Life has agreed to provide a long-term loan to the ride-hailing company of about $300 million.
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This brings up Didi’s total funding to more than $10. 5 billion.
Didi Chuxing was born from the merger last year of two of China’s leading ride-hailing apps, and has attracted investment from companies like Alibaba (BABA) and Tencent. Last fall, Didi struck a partnership with three other ride-hailing companies—Lyft in the U.S., Grab in Southeast Asia, and Ola in India—to let their respective customers book rides through each other’s services. So far, Didi’s integration with Lyft’s app has been completed, and Grab users can also book Lyft rides when traveling to the U.S.
The story has been updated late on Wednesday with confirmation from Didi Chuxing of its new funding, as well as updated details of the financing.