Didi completes $5.5 billion raise, Gett gets Juno

30 April, 2017

Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing, the company that bought Uber's China business past year, has closed a $5.5 billion funding round, valuing the company at over $50 billion, making it one of the world's most valuable private technology companies.

Didi Chuxing, the Chinese equivalent of Uber, has closed a US$5.5 billion funding round. Last month it officially opened a lab researching artificial intelligence-related driving technologies in Silicon Valley in the US.

The latest funding round which is looking at participation from SoftBank Group, Silver Lake Partners, China Merchants Bank and Bank of Communications, will be used for global expansion. In places like Beijing and Shanghai, the company's drivers are required to be local residents, preventing what is estimated to be thousands of potential Didi Chuxing drivers from nearby towns and countryside to work for the startup. Ant Financial, the payments affiliate of Alibaba is valued at $60 billion. The valuation is massive since Didi has a presence now limited to China although it is present India in an alliance with the local ride-hailing app, Ola.

According to sources, part of the latest capital investment would be used for global expansion.

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Didi will use some of the money from the latest fund-raising exercise to expand overseas. "With the launch of Didi Labs in Mountain View in California earlier this year, the company continues to attract the industry's top minds and explore investment opportunities in core technology areas", the company further added.

Apple has invested $1 billion in Didi.

Cheng and President Jean Liu hope that adopting driverless technology will help overcome such hurdles in the future. The new valuation of Didi Chuxing includes the acquisition of Uber's China operations.

The fresh funding moves Didi past Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, which was at $46 billion. It also employed Charlie Miler, former Uber engineer as the transport safety and security expert at the division.

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