China's Didi Chuxing Raises $4 Billion in New Funding, WSJ Says

(Bloomberg) -- Didi Chuxing, China’s biggest ride-hailing app, raised $4 billion in a new funding round to develop artificial intelligence and fuel its international expansion, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The funding increases the Beijing-based startup’s cash reserves to $12 billion, the newspaper said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. Investors in the company include SoftBank Group Corp. and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Capital, the Journal reported.

Didi didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Beijing-based company is the world’s second-most valuable startup, trailing only Uber Technologies Inc., and is said to have been valued at $50 billion after raising more than $5.5 billion in April. While the company has focused on shoring up its grip on ride-sharing in China, it has started to look beyond the mainland and is turning to franchising in Taiwan.

Some of the latest funding will go toward building out an electric car charging network, the Journal said.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Gao Yuan in Beijing at ygao199@bloomberg.net, David Ramli in Beijing at dramli1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Robert Fenner at rfenner@bloomberg.net, Reed Stevenson

©2017 Bloomberg L.P.

With assistance from Gao Yuan, David Ramli