Another bountiful year for Chinese startups raising money. Photo credit: anizza / 123RF.
When it comes to funding in Asia, China takes the cake. In the first half of 2016 alone, investors poured US$37 billion into Chinese startups, according to the Tech in Asia database.
Similar to top investments in other Asian countries, such as those in Indonesia, most of China’s largest funding rounds in 2016 came from well-known companies, such as Didi Chuxing, Uber, and Ant Financial. Overall, ride-hailing, fintech, and O2O were some of the hottest and most capital-sucking verticals in China.
Here are 10 of the largest funding rounds we saw in China this year.
Didi Chuxing
- US$7.3 billion
- Didi invests in bike-sharing and struggles against new regulations
Apple’s Tim Cook with Didi’s Jean Liu, pictured in Beijing shortly after Apple’s investment was announced. Photo credit: Tim Cook on Twitter.
Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing swept up US$7.3 billion dollars in a monster round of funding this summer. Investors included SoftBank, Alibaba, a Chinese life insurance company, and Apple, which was responsible for US$1 billion of the investment. The boost of capital raised the stakes in Didi’s fight against archrival Uber, ultimately resulting in the latter’s acquisition in a deal worth US$35 billion.
Now, still flush with cash, Didi is making investments of its own, such as in Ofo, one of the main players in China’s nascent bike-sharing industry. The Chinese unicorn is also battling new regulations from the Chinese government, which sets restrictions on who can drive.
See: My one-day experience of bike sharing with Mobike
Ant Financial
- US$4.5 billion
- Mobile payments, micro-loans, wealth management, online banking
Ant Financial, the finance affiliate of ecommerce giant Alibaba, pulled in US$4.5 billion in a series B round led by Chinese sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corporation and China Construction Bank. Ant Financial is best known for Alipay, China’s most popular mobile payment app. The Chinese fintech company also offers various wealth management products, micro-loans, and an online bank called MyBank.
Meituan-Dianping
- US$3.3 billion
- Survivor of China’s cash-burning online-to-offline industry
China’s largest group deals site Meituan-Dianping broke records in January when it raised US$3.3 billion, the largest non-IPO funding round in the tech industry at the time. Previously two separate companies, Meituan and Dianping merged last October in a deal negotiated by investors on both sides, Alibaba and Tencent, respectively. The two companies were part of China’s blazing food delivery industry in 2015, which, like ride-hailing, involved lots of cash-burning subsidies.
Uber China
Cainiao
Ele.me
JD Finance
WM Motor
LeSports
Lianjia
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