Singapore's Temasek makes a direct investment in China's Mobike

By Goh Thean Eu February 21, 2017

First direct investment in Mobike by Temasek
Raised over US$300 million so far this year

Singapore's Temasek makes a direct investment in China's Mobike

BEIJING Mobike Technology Co Ltd (Mobike), the world's largest smart bike-sharing company, has received a new strategic investment from Singapore's soverign wealth fund Temasek.

The current investment is led by Hillhouse Capital, a global investment management firm based in Asia. It is also Temasek's first direct investment in Mobike. In 2016, Temasek's subsidiary Vertex Ventures led Mobike's Series B+ round.

The investment is also timely, as Mobike is planning to launch its services in Singapore some time this year.

Prior to this announcement, Mobike has raised two rounds of funding this year. In early January, it raised US$215 million in a Series D round led by led by strategic investors Chinese Internet giant Tencent Group and private equity firm Warburg Pincus.

A few weeks after the Series D funding, it also announced that it received a strategic investment (undisclosed sum) from China's manufacturing giant Foxconn.

The company declined to reveal how much Temasek has invested into Mobike in this latest funding round. However, it did reveal that its total funds raised so far this year is over US$300 million. This means, the latest funding round, along with the strategic investment by Foxconn, collectively amounted to over US$85 million.

"In just 10 months, Mobike has grown to serving more than 10 million users across 21 cities - and in that time, people across China have taken more than 200 million Mobike rides. This equates to a reduction in carbon emissions of hundreds of thousands of tonnes.

"While we recently concluded a hugely successful Series D fundraising round that made Mobike the best-capitalized company in our industry, we are delighted to be able to welcome Temasek as a strategic investor and to deepen our engagement with our long-term partner, Hillhouse Capital. We are the clear leader in our industry globally, and are excited that our investors and other strategic partners recognize and support our ambitious goal to transform urban transport globally.

"In 2017, we will continue to invest in enhancing our technology, increasing our production capacity, recruiting top talent to our team, and in promoting Mobike’s innovative model internationally,” said co-founder and chief executive officer Davis Wang.

In a recent report on the bike-sharing industry, leading market research firm iResearch found that in the first week of 2017, Mobike’s mobile app had 5.849 million Weekly Active Users (WAU) (excluding users of the WeChat MicroApp), the highest in the industry in China and 4.2 times higher than its closest competitor.

On January 23, Mobike announced an exclusive strategic partnership with Foxconn, the world’s largest manufacturing technology services company, focused on enabling Mobike to increase annual global production capacity for its proprietary smart bikes to 10 million units.

The companies will also cooperate on initiatives to enhance the design and user experience of Mobike’s smart bikes, and optimizing Mobike’s global supply chain. Foxconn has also become a strategic investor in Mobike.

Mobike was officially launched in Shanghai in April 2016, and has rapidly expanded to 21 cities across China, including the country’s largest Tier 1 cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

The company aims to use its innovative technology to make cycling the most convenient and environmentally-friendly transport choice for urban residents, and to work with city planners, businesses, and commuters to develop sustainable and smart transport solutions.

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