Friday, March 24, 2017

"Uber’s largest Southeast Asian rival looks to raise another US$1.5 billion"

I still can't get the picture of Didi Chuxing's President, Liu Qing (anglicized to Jean Liu), commenting on Travis Kalanick and Uber's efforts in China as cute. Then when Uber proclaimed the $3.5 billion investment from the Saudis she laughed and said she had more than that on the way.
Didi then announced the completion of a $7.3 billion fundraising.

Uber better be on top of their game in Southeast Asia because they weren't in China and got run out of the country.

From Bloomberg via Asia  Unhedged and the Asia Times:

The financing would crush the region's previous record
 In an all-out race with Uber and Go-Jek Indonesia PT to take hold of the Southeast Asian market, Grab has hopes to raise an additional US$1.5 billion in a new funding round backed by Japanese Softbank Group.

Bloomberg reports that Softbank is pledging around US$1 billion, according to anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Still unclear, is whether or not the funding will come from Softbank’s Vision Fund, which has not been finalized yet.

The funding round would break the previous record for the region of US$750 million, set by Grab last September. The company announced this week plans to expand to a seventh Southeast Asian country.