China's Didi closes over $5.5 bn funding round

China's ride-hailing major Didi Chuxing has raised over USD 5.5 billion, making it Asia's most valuable startup worth of over USD 50 billion.
The company, an investor in Indian ride-hailing platform Ola, will use the fresh funding to support its global strategy and continued investments in artificial intelligence-based technologies.
Didi, however, did not name the investors. Reports suggest that Japan's SoftBank Group, China Merchants Bank, and an arm of China's Bank of Communications participated in the round.
It already counts Apple and Chinese Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent among its investors.
"Building on its competitive AI-based analytics capabilities, Didi is working towards systemic breakthroughs in intelligent driving technologies and smart transportation architecture," Didi said in an e-mailed statement.

Last month, the four-year old startup opened up an AI lab in Mountain View, US, to focus on developing intelligent driving systems.

While the company did not respond to whether it would pump in fresh money into Ola, Didi said the funding will help its "efforts to build an efficient and sustainable global mobility ecosystem".
The round is believed to value Didi at about USD 50 billion, ahead of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi that is valued at USD 46 billion.
Last year, Didi had succeeded in buying US-based Uber's operations in China, helping the company gain further market share. At that time, Didi was valued at about USD 34 billion.