A passenger uses app on the phone to check mileage of a yellow rental bike at the service points of Zhoujiazui Road. (Photo : Getty Images)
Ofo, a bike-sharing startup at China, announced that it has completed a 3.1 billion yuan D-round financing that is led by global investment institution Digital Sky Technology.
World's largest ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing, investment institution Matrix Partners China, and private equity fund CITIC Private Equity Funds Management Co. Ltd., also contributed in the largest single deal investment in the bike-sharing industry.
The Ofo D-round financing made the company the most valued among the bike-sharing competition.
"Ofo is devoted to becoming a global influential company. We thank the choice and trust from global top-notch investors We will continue to lead the rapid and sound growth of the industry, and provide convenient short-distance traveling services for global users," said founder and CEO of Ofo Dai Wei.
The data from a third-party research institution show that Ofo has taken up 51.2 percent of shares in the bike-sharing market, the company stated in a press release.
The data also show that Ofo grew 218 percent in three months, which is the fastest growth in the bike-sharing industry. The Ofo mobile app has also recently reached the top charts of free applications in the AppStore of Apple Inc.
Ofo has connected more than 1 million bicycles with more than 20 million registered users since June 2015. The company has provided more than 300 million travel time services for users in nearly 40 cities that are located in China, Singapore, Britain, and the United States.
Digital Sky Technology also backed the fund-raising of famous global internet companies such as Airbnb and Facebook. Besides this, they also have financed a lot of Chinese companies such as Xiaomi Corp., Alibaba Group and JD.com.
Yuri Milner, the founder of Digital Sky Technology, said: "DST chose the investees that will obviously become a leader of its sector, can be listed right away in theory and can sustain development in the long run."
