Japanese telco Softbank has led a financing round of about US$600m for China’s Travice, the owner and operator of mobile taxi-booking app operator KuaiDi Dache.
Existing KuaiDi shareholders, Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, in which Softbank is the…
Japanese telco Softbank has led a financing round of about US$600m for China’s Travice, the owner and operator of mobile taxi-booking app operator KuaiDi Dache.
Existing KuaiDi shareholders, Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, in which Softbank is the largest shareholder, and US investment firm Tiger Global also took part in the funding, the Japanese company said in a statement.
Proceeds are to help KuaiDi, one of the most popular mobile taxi-hailing apps in China, to expand and improve services.
Nikesh Arora, vice president of Softbank and CEO of its internet and media unit SIMI, commented: “In two years, KuaiDi Dache has grown to become a leading player in the Chinese mobile taxi booking industry, and we are convinced it will see further remarkable growth thanks to its talented team, vision and leadership.”
Alibaba CEO Jonathan Lu noted that the company believes mobile internet is entering an “exciting phase” which KuaiDi is well-placed to take advantage of.
This deal marks the latest in a string of investments in international online and media content businesses for Softbank, which aims to become the world’s largest internet company. Other businesses it recently invested in include Southeast Asian mobile taxi-hailing app GrabTaxi; Indian ecommerce company Snapdeal; taxi app Ola Cabs; real estate platform Housing.com; and Indonesian ecommerce firm Tokopedia.
Launched in 2012, KuaiDi provides booking services to more than a million taxis in more than 300 cities in China, including Hong Kong, as well as standard and luxury cars, Softbank said.
It has a 54.5% share of the local mobile taxi booking market in terms of cumulative user accounts, according to November 2014 data from Beijing-based consultancy Analysys International.
