Car-sharing startup Like Chuxing has raised a Series B+ round from investors including Ant Financial, while state-linked venture capital firm Shenzhen Capital Group has partnered with multi-stage venture fund SOSV to establish angel and growth funds.
Like Chuxing snags funding
Chinese car-sharing startup Like Chuxing has raised a Series B+ round worth tens of millions of US dollars from a group of investors including Ant Financial, according to a statement last Friday.
The round was joined by the startup’s existing investors – Chinese principal investment firm Yimei Capital, venture capital firm Legend Capital, early-stage investor China Renaissance K2 Ventures (K2VC), and Silicon Valley’s Bluerun Ventures.
Like Chuxing’s CEO Wang Yang said the fresh capital will be mainly used for operations and technology upgrades. He also claimed that the startup’s Guangzhou operations are already profitable.
“Like Chuxing has the highest operational efficiency in the industry, and is the first to realise profit under the condition of operating thousands of vehicles in a single city. It is because of a set of data-driven, scientific, efficient and continuous evolution of the operating system.
“With the support of this system, more cities will be profitable in the next one or two months… We will provide continuous support to the company via growth capital,” said Lighthouse Capital vice president Lou Yang.
The startup last raised an undisclosed Series B round led by Ant Financial in May 2018.
Founded in Guangzhou in June 2017, Like Chuxing operates in Foshan, Wuhan, Chengdu, Nanjing, and Changsha. In Guangzhou, the startup has a network of nearly 1,000 car hire points, allowing people to find a Like Chuxing car within a distance of less than 500 meters.
Shenzhen Capital partners with SOSV
State-linked venture capital firm Shenzhen Capital Group has partnered US-based multi-stage venture fund SOSV to establish and manage angel and growth funds, it said in a statement last Thursday.
Under the partnership, the two firms will work together to extend investment insights to each other by setting up a China Angel VC Fund and a European Growth Fund. The fund sizes were not disclosed.
According to Shenzhen Capital’s chairman Ni Zewang, SOSV and Shenzhen Capital have complementary advantages and have good prospects for cooperation.
“SOSV relies on accelerators to provide services for startups, and actively participates in and promotes the operation mode of post-financing, providing a reference for Shenzhen Capital to further strengthen investment services.
“It is hoped that the two sides will strengthen interaction and explore an efficient project investment cooperation mechanism to jointly promote the growth of innovative and entrepreneurial enterprises, help Chinese entrepreneurs ‘go global’ and foreign excellent enterprises ‘walk in’ [into China] – a win-win for everyone,” he said.
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