Bike-sharing firm Ofo raises funds for expansion
July 10, 2017 Category Travel, Weekly
Chinese bike-sharing company Ofo has raised more than USD700 million in a fresh round of financing to expand globally. The new series E-round of financing was led by Alibaba Group Holding, Hony Capital and CITIC Private Equity. It is the biggest round of financing in the bike-sharing industry to date, surpassing Mobike’s latest USD600 million round last month. Ofo has operations in more than 150 cities in five countries globally. Operating more than 6.5 million bikes, Ofo said it has over 100 million users and has supported more than two billion rides since its debut in 2015. Its top competitor Mobike, backed by Tencent Holdings, has placed more than five million bikes in over 130 cities globally, including Manchester, England, and Fukuoka in Japan. Mobike aims to operate in 200 cities by the end of 2017. Last week, China released industry standards to regulate the bike-sharing sector. The cities of Shanghai and Tianjin have drafted regulations to take effect on October 1. The regulations specify a service life of three years for the bikes and require that companies hire at least one maintenance employee for every 200 bikes. The rules also regulate management of deposits, handling of customer complaints and compensation for users. More than 10 million shared bikes are on the streets of Chinese cities, operated by over 30 companies, the China Daily reports.
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