China’s Hellobike becomes third bike-hailing unicorn
China’s bike-sharing platform Hellobike achieved unicorn status on receiving an investment of $321mn from Alibaba’s Ant Financial.
This has brought the company’s total value up to $1.47bn and means it is the third bike-sharing company to become a unicorn (a start-up worth over $1bn) in the world.
Hellobike is owned by Youon Low Carbon Technology which operates Youon Bike. The firm bought Hellobike in 2017 and merged it with its existing bike rental business.
See also:
Alibaba leads $886mn funding round for bike-sharing platform Ofo
Tencent-backed Meituan Dianping buys out Mobike for $3.4bn
GrabPay partners with oBike in Singapore
The Ant Financial investment affords the Alibaba spin-off a 36% stake in Hellobike, reducing Youon Bike’s stake from 10.29% to 8.86%.
While this is a great achievement for the company, which started in 2016, China Money Network reports that Youon remains cautious, having said in a statement that it expects “intense competition will last for a long period of time in the bike-sharing sector”.
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