Brazilian ridesharing company 99 has raised funds from SoftBank to fuel its growth in the Brazilian market. With this investment, SoftBank will become a minority stakeholder in 99, which also counts SoftBank portfolio company Didi Chuxing as one of the investors. The transaction was completed last week with 99’s chief executive Peter Fernandez travelling to Tokyo to meet SoftBank founder Masayoshi San.

99 is the largest ridesharing company in Brazil and raised USD 100 million from Riverwood and Didi Chuxing in January. This investment from SoftBank is an extension to the round taking the round size up to USD 200 million.

With this investment, 99 also finds a spot on the expanding list of SoftBank investments in Uber rivals all over the world. SoftBank is an investor in India-based Ola, Singapore-based Grab, China-based Didi Chuxing (starting with Kuaidi Dache in 2015) and US-based Lyft. While SoftBank is adding transportation companies to its portfolio because of the growth potential they have, it is also aiming to maximise synergies with a global network of companies.

The investment in 99 is also important for Didi Chuxing as it looks at growth options after the recent funding. Didi expressed its global ambitions and the investment in 99 will give it a slice of the opportunity in a country with 200 million people.

After selling its China business to Didi Chuxing, Uber has been looking at other growth opportunities including India and SouthEast Asia. Brazil is a relatively new market for Uber as it launched in the country near the end of 2015 and has been battling various issues. Started in 2012, 99 claims to have 200,000 drivers on its network and plans to expand its peer to peer sharing service 99POP with the fresh capital.

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The largest Chinese ride sharing company Didi Chuxing is reportedly considering a USD 6 billion investment backed by SoftBank Group. Bloomberg reports that this would be the single largest round for a Chinese tech startup however, the round’s size could dilute other existing shareholders. As a result, Apple and Tencent could join the investment round in order to avoid diluting their stakes.

Didi Chuxing reached a valuation of USD 34 billion after an investment of USD 120 million by Foxconn last year. SoftBank is already an investor in Didi Chuxing along with Alibaba, Apple, China Life, Foxconn and many others. SoftBank also has investments in Ola and Grab as well.

While Didi cleared the competition from its biggest rival Uber by acquiring its China business, another local rival Ucar is emerging as a strong player. To top that up, Didi is facing hurdles in some key Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai because of the regulations limiting its pool of drivers.

If the investment goes through, it is likely that the funds will go towards picking up a fight against Google and Uber for driverless cars. Didi recently opened an artificial intelligence lab in Silicon Valley after attracting talent from its rivals in the self-driving race.

Last year, Didi Chuxing President Jean Liu expressed the intent to take the brand global. There is a lower probability of the resources being used in that direction because with so many stakeholders onboard, it won’t come without going against the interests of some of them.

Source: Bloomberg

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Grab, the Southeastern Asian giant for cab hailing has confirmed to raise $750 million in fresh capital.

The company raised series F round, and it was led by existing investor SoftBank from new and undisclosed existing backers. One such investment is said to be directed from China’s Didi Kuaidi, which reportedly made a commitment to this round but neither side is confirming now.

Image by Jon Russell / CC BY 2.0

This round confirmed post-valuation of $3 billion to the company which was previously valued at $2.3 billion. It raised around $350 million last August and this funding round was comprehended to raise $600 million in August. However, the company’s headquarter in Singapore claims to possess $1 billion on sheet courtesy of this fresh capital.

Grab said it has 400,000 drivers on its platforms and it has seen over 21 million app downloads to date. In an announcement, the company added that it sees “up to 1.5 million daily bookings,” which a Grab spokesperson confirmed means ride requests not completed rides. Taking on Uber does definitely require loads of capital, Grab, however, has sketched major areas where it would like to focus.

Indonesia is the fifth largest economy in Southeast Asia that falls on the top of the list with the CEO Anthony Tan claiming that Indonesia’s ride-hailing industry is worth $15 billion annually- that includes multi-mode means of transportation which Grab offers there and services such as food delivery, logistics and more. Though, GoJek is a tough competitor in Indonesian market that provides on-demand motorbike taxi service.

Grab has R&D centres in Singapore, Beijing and Seattle that has set priorities on refining algorithms to help drivers become more efficient using mapping technology, working on-demand prediction and user targeting.

“Grab has grown tremendously over the past year. This round of funding shows the confidence and optimism investors have in Grab’s market leadership and long-term potential in Southeast Asia,” Tan, Grab’s CEO, said in a statement.

This new funding round is a major round for Grab and the largest for a tech startup in Southeast Asia to date.

Source: TechCrunch

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The grapevine is bantering around the bush. Uber may acquire Ola’s controlling stakes soon. The warheads at taxi aggregating service could shake hands to close the deal soon.

The national broadsheet DNA India hopped on some information from a source claiming that except for Japanese investor SoftBank, the rest of the promoters from Bengaluru’s based start-up, including promoters Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, would exit.

Image: Uber taxi by alper/ ( CC BY 2.0)

The enterprise’s value has been estimated around $4 billion and Aggarwal’s stake of around 17% has been valued at $580 million. However, the stake of the biggest shareholder, SoftBank would remain same; 26%.

“Uber is buying a controlling stake in Ola, where all the shareholders, except SoftBank, is being bought out. The enterprise valuation is being estimated at $4billion,”

said the unknown source.

More details are still to roll out as the deal is being worked upon. The heedfulness would be completed and the term sheet could be signed in the current quarter itself.

From what is being eyed, there were no confirmations or denials from Ola’s spokespersons or executive. They denied to give any confirmation yet and the calls to Anand Subramaniam, marketing and communication director, don’t have any trails to follow.

If the deal goes through, it will establish Uber’s market dominance in the domestic sector. Currently, Ola is the market leader with reportedly 40% share against Uber’s 25-30%. In terms of drivers too, Ola has an edge over Uber with almost 3.5 lakh drivers as compared to the aggregator’s 2.5 lakh. Ola was launched in 2010 with Uber following it after 3 years in India.

The two have been engaged in a battle for market share for long now. In order to expand their operations, Ola had acquired TaxiforSure back last year for $200 million.

Besides SoftBank, Ola’s investors include Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital. Late last year, it had raised a whooping $500 million from Baillie Gifford, Tiger Global, SoftBank Group and others to escalate its fight against Uber and Meru, another primary significant player in the market.

Source: dnaIndia

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The acquisition of ZO Rooms by rival OYO Rooms has been in news for a while. Earlier reports indicated that OYO Rooms was in process to acquire ZO Rooms in an all stock deal and that ZO Rooms has been laying off employees. Earlier today some speculations came out about the acquisition being completed after ZO Rooms website and app stopped working but were dismissed soon after the website went live again. Now there is a confirmation of the same from OYO Rooms investor Softbank.

The acquisition wasn’t surprising considering the fact that both the companies were spending the funds on expanding rapidly and OYO Rooms had a clear advantage. Zostel Hospitality was unable to raise subsequent rounds from other investors or their existing investors which eventually resulted in the acquisition. Softbank’s earning release indicates that OYO Rooms has grown 34 fold from the previous year.

This acquisition will clearly put OYO Rooms on the top in this space with a significant margin. This segment has not only seen new startups trying to aggregate the budget hotel properties but also the entry of major OTAs including MakeMyTrip, Goibibo and Yatra. While the brands haven’t shown any significant revenue yet, it should change over time as they build trust among travellers.

Source: Business Standard

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