Alibaba’s biggest investments in 2017

🎵 You better watch out, you better not cry, better not pout, I’m telling you why – Jack Ma is coming to town. 🎶

A bit like Santa Claus, Alibaba founder Ma each year draws up a list, checks it twice, finds out who’s naughty or nice – and then invests in the nicest startups.

In a good year for Alibaba – its valuation doubled to well over US$400 billion – it spent big on investments. In 2017, its top 10 payouts were worth US$11 billion – though that was nearly US$2 billion less than its record 2015 spending spree.

Three of this year’s were overseas, showing how the Chinese tech giant is advancing deeper into India and Southeast Asia.

Here’s this year’s top action. The indicated funding figure may include contributions from other investors.

1. Sun Art

• Funding round: US$2.9 billion
• Country: China

Six months after Amazon acquired Whole Foods, Alibaba made its own bold move into groceries. Paying nearly US$3 billion for a one-third stake, Alibaba invested in Sun Art Retail, which operates several well-known supermarket brands including RT-Mart and the China-based stores of French chain Auchan.

However, the deal wasn’t Alibaba’s first move into offline stores…

2. Intime

• Acquisition amount: US$2.6 billion
• Country: China

Alibaba made its first serious push into brick-and-mortar retail back in early 2014 when it ploughed nearly US$700 million into department store and mall firm Intime. Alibaba started 2017 with a bang by coughing up a further US$2.6 billion to take control of Intime.

3. Tokopedia

4. Lazada

5. Ele.me

6. Cainiao

7. Ofo

8. Souche

9. Yiguo

10. BigBasket