Didi Chuxing And SoftBank To Invest $2B In Grab

Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing company, and SoftBank are reportedly teaming up to invest $2 billion in Grab, the leading ridesharing company operating out of Southeast Asia.

According to a news report in Recode, in addition to the investment, Grab expects to raise $500 million from other investors as part of this round of fundraising. The company’s valuation as a result would be higher than $6 billion, noted the report, citing a source familiar with Grab’s fundraising. The new capital is expected to go to expand into other geographies and grow its mobile payment business dubbed GrabPay.

Didi and SoftBank already have relationships with Grab, noted the report. Didi invested in Grab in 2015 and eventually created an anti-Uber alliance, which is a coalition of carsharing companies that share knowledge but does not include Uber. The group consists of Didi, Grab, Ola of India and Lyft.

Last year, after a long, expensive and frustrating fight, Uber officially retired its ridesharing efforts in China. Instead of operating and competing directly for Chinese riders, Uber is instead taking a minority 20 percent stake in the firm that essentially out-competed them in China — Didi Chuxing. The deal will also involve Didi investing $1 billion in Uber at a $68 billion valuation.

Uber will not disappear from China, however — the ride-hailing company will continue to operate under its old name, though now as part of the Didi family.

SoftBank for its part, noted the report, led Grab’s $250 million round of fundraising in 2014. Didi has also invested in Ola and Lyft and recently was the lead in a round of fundraising for 99, a Brazilian carsharing startup.

Meanwhile, the report noted SoftBank just last week co-led a $159 million round of fundraising for Nauto, which is a self-driving technology company. Greylock Ventures was the other co-lead in the deal, noted the report.