The battle for Chinese passengers intensified after Alibaba-backed taxi-hailing app Kuaidi Dache raised roughly $600m in fresh capital from Japanese telecommunications group SoftBank and existing shareholders.
Softbank’s investment in Kuaidi Dache together with Alibaba and Tiger Global Management was the latest in its spending spree, which includes a $250m stake in GrabTaxi, a Southeast Asian Uber-style taxi hailing app, announced last month. The company also led a $210m investment in Ola Cabs, an Indian taxi app.
“Their investment and expertise will enable us to greatly broaden our market reach,” Lu Chuanwei, chief executive of Kuaidi Dache, said in a statement on Thursday.