CHENNAI: ofo, the world first and largest station-free bike-sharing platform, has raised $866 million in a new round of funding led by Alibaba Group, with participation from Haofeng Group, Tianhe Capital, Ant Financial and Junli Capital.
The strategic financing presents the highest funding record in the bike-sharing industry and marks a new era for operational efficiency of the bike-sharing system, said a release.
ofo has used a combination of debt and equity financing for this round.
“As the global leader in the bike-sharing sector, ofo has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development. ofo will continue to put our customers first and lead the bike-sharing industry with technological innovation and efficient operations,” said a release quoting Dai Wei, founder and CEO of ofo, as saying
To date, ofo has operations in over 250 cities across 21 countries alongside widespread usage by over 200 million global users with more than 6 billion efficient, convenient and green rides, totalling to 32 million rides per day.
Founded in 2014, ofo is the world’s first and largest “station-free” bike-sharing platform operated via an online mobile application.
The development of ofo platform was inspired by the concept of sharing economy and facilitated by smart phone technology, aiming to tackle “the last mile” challenge in urban areas.
In July 2017, ofo completed Series E funding of $700 million, becoming the world’s biggest and most valued bike-sharing company. In March 2018, ofo secured the E2-1 funding of US$866 million, which was led by the Alibaba Group.
