Meituan-Dianping raises another US$4b to fund offline retail push

BEIJING: Meituan-Dianping said yesterday it has raised US$4 billion (RM16.9 billion) in a funding round that values China’s largest on-demand services provider at US$30 billion, as part of a strategy to compete with the country’s leading e-commerce firms in offline retail.

Meituan-Dianping said in a statement the round was led by existing investor Tencent Holdings Ltd, with participants including Sequoia Capital Ltd, Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd and Tiger Global Management LLC.

Earlier this year, Meituan-Dianping announced plans to invest in offline services and artificial intelligence (AI) technology, amid a push by China’s top tech firms into brick-and-mortar retail.

Often compared with services from Yelp Inc and Groupon Inc, Meituan-Dianping is an online platform for a range of services, including movie ticketing, food delivery, restaurant bookings, travel and luxury goods.

Its biggest rivals include Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and JD.com Inc, both of which have championed a shift into offline stores in recent years, spurred by developments in cloud computing and big data technology.

Meituan-Dianping said it had 280 million users and serves as a platform for roughly five million businesses. It also has roughly US$3 billion in cash reserves remaining from a previous funding round. Reuters