Hellobike — a Chinese bike-sharing startup that operates the country’s third largest bike-sharing app according to Analysys data — is seeking new funding at a $4 billion valuation, nearly double its previous valuation of $2.2 billion according to a report from The Information. But the company is said to be struggling to get investors to pour in cash at that high valuation amid bike-sharing woes in China whose poster boy Ofo burned through a massive $2.2 billion in funding before heading downwards.

Hellobike is backed by the likes of Alibaba’s Ant Financial (also an investor in Ofo), Fosun Group, GGV Capital, and Chengwei Capital. The Information reports the company is seeking to raise hundreds of millions of dollars with no specific amount disclosed, but the company may face hard times trying to prove skeptics of the capital-intensive bike-sharing industry wrong, especially in China where there’s much competition and huge piles of abandoned bikes.

Several bike-sharing companies in China are facing tough times. Even Mobike — which successfully exited to Meituan Dianping for $2.7 billion last year — is no exception. The company earlier this year shut down all its international operations to focus solely on China.

Nevertheless, U.S. bike-sharing counterparts seem to be thriving better. Lime recently had some restructuring which saw co-founder Brad Bao take over as CEO while outgoing CEO and co-founder Toby Sun shifts his focus to company culture and research and development. Uber also recently kicked off a pilot of its Jump bike-sharing service in London.

Share this...

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Linkedin

Whatsapp

Email

Print