Alibaba has invested in food delivery startup Ele.me: report

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Well, the rumors seem to be true. Alibaba’s long-anticipated investment in Chinese food delivery startup giant Ele.me has gone through, according to a Sina Tech report citing paperwork filed by Ele.me with China’s industry and commerce authorities.

Specifically, the documents state that Alibaba vice-chair Joseph Tsai now has a seat on Ele.me’s board. That means Alibaba’s investment in Ele.me must have gone through, although it doesn’t make clear exactly how much Alibaba poured into the startup.

Back in December, Alibaba was reportedly planning a US$1.25 billion investment in Ele.me, with industry watchers suggesting the deal was essentially done and could be formally announced by the Spring Festival holiday in February. But an official announcement never happened. After Ele.me came in for sharp criticism over food safety concerns during Chinese state television’s yearly pro-consumer-rights broadcast in March, some speculated that the investment announcement would be put off to give Ele.me some time to clean up its reputation and let the dust settle.

Having the investment outed by a government filing probably isn’t the way either company was hoping for things to go, but the news shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone. Rumors of the investment have been persistent and well-sourced, and Ele.me has already confirmed plans to collaborate on some projects with Alibaba’s Koubei O2O service. Rumors last month even suggested a merger between Ele.me and Koubei, though the companies have denied that.

Prior to this latest round, Ele.me raised an undisclosed sum from Alibaba-backed ridesharing firm Didi Kuaidi (which has its own interesting fundraising news today, by the way). Before that, it raised a US$630 million series F round from investors including Tencent, JD.com, Sequoia Capital, Hualian, and CITIC Capital Holdings.

(Tech in Asia attempted to verify the details of Ele.me’s filings independently, but the Chinese government website they’re posted to was broken. Tech in Asia also contacted Alibaba and Ele.me to confirm this story, but had not yet recieved a reply from either as of press time.)