What’s going on with Uber China’s fundraising round?

Around the same time early this summer, Uber and its China competitor Didi Kuaidi both announced plans to raise funds to take on the Chinese market.

Didi moved pretty quickly, securing a massive US$2 billion round that it officially announced back in early July. Uber has been slower. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick confirmed yesterday that Uber China will raise at least $1.2 billion, but the round isn’t finalized and no investors (other than Baidu) have been disclosed. Meanwhile, Didi Kuaidi just announced plans to raise another US$1 billion.

A Bloomberg report from August – the latest and best information we have about Uber China’s round – cites anonymous insider sources as saying that Uber China’s round will close at US$1.4 billion, and feature investment from a unit of China’s Citic Group Corp. and China Life Insurance Co. in addition to Baidu and Uber itself – the company reportedly plans to put US$300-US$500 million into its China subsidiary as part of the round.

Of course, we won’t know anything for sure until the round is finalized and the details are announced. But there’s no avoiding the fact that what we’ve heard so far doesn’t look great. Uber China seems to be raising less money than Didi Kuaidi, at a slower pace than Didi Kuaidi, and apparently with less impressive backing than Didi Kuaidi. Certainly, nobody is going to be very impressed that Uber China managed to secure a big investment from its own parent company. Investors like China’s Citic Group look better, but Citic reportedly plans to invest only around US$20 million in Uber China, with the rest of its US$100 million buy-in going to Uber global.

Third-party firms like Analysys International peg Didi Kuaidi as having around 80 percent of China’s private car market. Uber likely controls most of the rest of that market, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but the company can’t be content to playing second fiddle in the Middle Kingdom. Still, with Didi apparently so far ahead and apparently able to raise more money more quickly, can Uber really still compete?

That remains to be seen, but it certainly doesn’t look good. In this business, looks can often be deceiving, but even so, Uber could help its own case by speedily closing this investment round – to which it has hopefully attracted a few more big-name investors.