<article>Chinese car trading platform Chehaoduo on Thursday announced that it has bagged $1.5 billion in fresh funding from SoftBank Vision Fund.
The parent company of Guazi.com &amp; Maodou.com allows customers to buy and sell used and new cars. Its investors include Sequoia Capital, Tencent Holdings, Bluerun Ventures, Matrix Partners and Singapore&#8217;s sovereign wealth fund GIC.</article>

Chinese car trading platform Chehaoduo on Thursday announced that it has bagged $1.5 billion in fresh funding from SoftBank Vision Fund.
The parent company of Guazi.com &amp; Maodou.com allows customers to buy and sell used and new cars. Its investors include Sequoia Capital, Tencent Holdings, Bluerun Ventures, Matrix Partners and Singapore&#8217;s sovereign wealth fund GIC.
Chehaoduo said it will use the capital infusion for technology innovation and to develop new products and services. It also intends to expand its marketing capabilities and open offline stores.
&#8220;The global automotive industry is experiencing unprecedented change and with this change comes great opportunities. The application of big data and artificial intelligence is the key to fundamental reform of automotive retail in China,&#8221; Chehaoduo Group CEO Mark Yang said in a statement. 
&#8220;The support of the Vision Fund not only strengthens the Group&#8217;s capital base, but also has the potential to boost our big data and AI innovation capabilities, which can be applied to the whole automotive retail value chain,&#8221; he added.
A recent Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/key-investors-are-unhappy-with-softbank-tech-investment-fund-11550509200?ns=prod/accounts-wsj">report</a> had said that the Vision Fund&#8217;s proposed investment in Chehaoduo would value the startup at $8.5 billion. The Chinese company did not disclose its valuation in its announcement on Thursday.
The WSJ report also said that SoftBank Corp&#8217;s chief executive Masayoshi Son had overruled objections from partners within the group for the investment into Chehaoduo, which was recently accused of fraud.
&#8220;China&#8217;s used car market is growing rapidly but online penetration remains low and auto financing is underutilized compared to developed markets,&#8221; said SoftBank Investment Advisers partner Eric Chen. 
Founded in 2014, Chehaoduo claims it has grown into China&#8217;s leading car trading platform with about 600 offline stores. It was spun out of Chinese classified online marketplace Ganji.com.
China’s car trading market has continued to grow even as overall auto sales declined last year for the first time since the 1990s. Used car sales rose 11.5 per cent in 2018 from the year before to 13.82 million vehicles. The total value of these transactions was 860.4 billion yuan ($127.61 billion), according to the China Automobile Dealers Association.
Also Read:
<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/softbank-vision-fund-guazi-119858/">SoftBank Vision Fund said to be in talks to invest $1.5b in Chinese used car site Guazi</a>
<a style="color: #ff0000;" href="https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/96934-96934/">Goldman Sachs to lead $300m round for Chinese used car platform Renrenche</a>

China's car trading platform Chehaoduo snags $1.5b from SoftBank Vision Fund

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief

China's car trading platform Chehaoduo snags $1.5b from SoftBank Vision Fund

Continue reading this story with a subscription to DealStreetAsia.

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief