Didi raises $7.3b in new funding for the war against Uber

China’s ride hailing industry apparently isn’t slowing down at all from the fundraising mad dash we saw last year. After Uber’s recent $3.5 billion round, Didi announced that it was raising an even bigger round.

It wasn’t kidding.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

China’s homegrown competitor to Uber Technologies Inc. has raised $7 billion in its latest fundraising effort, giving it a host of powerful allies including Apple Inc. to fend off the global ride-hailing champion locally.

Didi Chuxing Technology Co., the country’s biggest ride-sharing company, closed a $4.5 billion fundraising round that attracted $1 billion from Apple and $600 million from China’s top life insurer, according to people familiar with the situation. The round values the company at more than $25 billion, they said.

In addition, Didi has secured a $2.5 billion debt package from China Merchants Bank Co., according to one of the people.

Didi now has US$10 billion in cash in the bank that it can bring to bear in the war against Uber China – a war that it is, by all accounts, already winning handsomely. Then again, Uber did recently say it expects to beat Didi in China within a year. It’s clear the American company intends to put up a fight, but Didi has a big lead and now has an absurd amount of financial ammunition, too.

UPDATE: Didi PR has since officially confirmed the fund, saying it totals US$7.3 billion and includes equity investments “from Apple, China Life, Ant Financial and other new shareholders, together with existing investors Tencent, Alibaba, China Merchants Bank, and SoftBank, among others.”