Chinese taxi app Didi Kuaidi to raise $1.5bn to compete with Uber
China's largest taxi app company, Didi Kuaidi, is planning to raise $1.5bn in a move that would enable it to compete with taxi app giant Ubber.
The news came a week after an email was leaked to the Financial Times, announcing that Uber could have plans to invest more than $1bn in the world’s second largest economy, as part of an aggressive plan to expand in 50 Chinese cities.
Read more: Uber plans $1bn investment in China, where it completes 1m trips per day
Didi Kuaidi was created on 13 February following the merger of Kuaidi Dache and Didi Dache, although it decided to maintain both brands.
Didi Dache managed to raise more than $700m in funding to further cement its position in the country's market on December 2014. The company was said to have 100m registered users by the beginning of 2015, serving around 300 cities in China.
Kuaidi Dache raised $700m from investors like Alibaba and SoftBank and was said to have 200m users in 300 cities, holding 54.4% of the mobile taxi market in China.
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