Monster-sized ride hailing app startup Uber has just seen its China unit raise a bolshie $1 billion and boy will it need it.
The round included a lot of local muscle: Chinese search giant Baidu, investment bank Citic, and Asian hedge fund Hillhouse Capital, among others. But Uber has some tough local competition.
The Silicon Valley-headquartered start-up took two months to raise the $1 billion it needed to bolster its China business. “Not bad”, you might think. Perhaps.
Then again, Didi Kuaidi – the taxi app startup that Uber China wants to try and snaffle market share from – raised double that amount in just two weeks.
What’s more, Didi Kuaidi – which comprises recently merged entities Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache – also has some big backers including: internet giant Alibaba, Singapore government-backed behemoth Temasek, and Japanese telecom titan Softbank.
Gaffe-prone Uber is not exactly winning hearts and minds in China at the moment either. Only yesterday the firm was under fire (again) after one its drivers was accused of a sexual attack on a passenger.
De ja vu? It was embroiled in a similar scandal in India back in January. For those who don’t know already, India is the OTHER Asian emerging market where Uber is currently getting schooled by a local incumbent.
Indian taxi app firm Ola may not have the same kind of cash pile as Uber but it certainly has the lion’s share of the market in India after swallowing up local rival TaxiForSure in March. So in Asia Uber is basically fighting a war on two fronts. Good luck with that.
Photo: orangesky3