China's leading chauffeur services app Didi Kuaidi is making preparations to extend its operations in the United States, as it is expected to complete its fundraising round amounting to $2 billion, according to JMedia.
According to the report, Didi Kuaidi has also started to recruit staff for its projected U.S. operation, which will include a research and development (R&D) center.
Didi Kuaidi's fundraising was reportedly higher than that of Uber, the leading app-based chauffeur service provider worldwide, which was able to get only $1.5 billion in its fundraising efforts.
The report said that the fresh funds would enable Didi Kuaidi to establish its status in the Chinese market as the leader in the industry, holding off Uber, which opened its China services in Shenzhen in July 2014 and has extended the operation of its services to six cities in total, including Shanghai.
"In terms of the number of services, our scale has been 10 times that of our rival in China and three times worldwide," Chen Wei, CEO of Didi Kuaidi, said.
According to the company's statistics, daily orders for its driver services have reached 3 million, an increase of 1 million in early May, on top of 3 million taxi-hailing services, the latter for 99-percent market share.
Insiders said that the U.S. expansion project is expected to boost the company's technological level in addition to business expansion.
Aside from its plan to set up an institute of mechanical learning, which will augment its data processing capability, the R&D center is also expected to provide convenient, efficient and environmentally friendly services.
