Didi Kuaidi teams up with one of China’s biggest banks for cards, car loans, and more

Does Didi Kuaidi need more investment capital after its US$3 billion round last year? Probably not, but it’s getting some anyway. The company announced Tuesday that it has established a new partnership with China Merchants Bank (CMB). The partnership also includes a “strategic investment” from the bank in Didi, although the sum of that investment has not been disclosed.

Given Didi’s impressive financing numbers it’s likely the investment wasn’t the primary motivator behind this deal. Rather, China Merchants Bank – one of the country’s largest – is now collaborating with Didi on a number of financial services. Perhaps the most important: now Didi drivers will be able to finance loans for new cars directly through Didi and China Merchants Bank. The companies will also launch credit and debit cards together, and in-app card payments will also be added to the Didi app.

From Didi’s perspective, in addition to the extra investment capital, the ridesharing company also gets some financial asset management, an easier way for drivers to upgrade their vehicles, and integration of a new and very convenient payment option (lots of people in China have CMB debit cards). From the bank’s perspective, a partnership with Didi gives it a foothold in the online payment space currently dominated by Alipay and Wepay. Didi boasts about 250 million users and about six million active drivers – if CMB can get a significant chunk of users to pay using its cards and a significant chunk of drivers to finance new cars through Didi, it stands to make quite a bit of money.