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.

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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”.