Chinese bike-sharing company Mobike in record breaking financing round

Chinese bike-sharing company Mobike said it had raised over 600 million US dollars in its latest financing round.

Shared bikes of Mobike [File photo: qq.com]

Its CEO and co-founder, Davis Wang, said the capital raised will help with the globalization of the company which plans to serve 200 cities worldwide by the end of this year.

Mobike is also planning to increase investment in 'Internet of Things' technologies and applications, as well as artificial intelligence and intelligent hardware, said Wang.

According to the Beijing News, the move broke the record of funding raised in a single financing round in bike-sharing industry.

The financing round was led by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holding, and involved existing investors such as Sequoia, TPG and Hillhouse Capital, with investment banks BOCOM International Holdings Co Ltd, ICBC International Holdings Ltd and asset management firm Farallon Capital becoming investors for the first time.

Mobike started operations in Shanghai in April, 2016, and has expanded its business to around 100 Chinese cities. Globally, it has expanded to Singapore, and has launched operations in Manchester and Salford in the UK.

With more than 100 million registered users making up to 25 million rides a day, Mobike has become the world's largest bike-sharing platform accessed using smartphones.