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Dec. 28 (NBD) – Mobile transportation start-up Hello Chuxing, formerly Hellobike, confirmed to NBD Thursday that it has received a new round of financing led by Primavera Capital Group and Ant Financial.

The deal worth about 4 billion yuan (582.8 million U.S. dollars) has been completed in September this year.

The funding came as venture capital investment is in a downturn and the bike-sharing sector is in turmoil. 

Ofo and Mobike, China's leading bike-sharing platforms, are in trouble as the former is reported to be on the brink of bankruptcy and the latter with major layoffs.

However, it has been a spectacular year for Hello Chuxing. In April, it received Series E funding of 700 million U.S. dollars from Ant Financial and Fosun Group. In June, the start-up received Series F pre-IPO funding of 2 billion yuan (291.4 million U.S. dollars) from Ant Financial. 

It is noted that Primavera Capital, as a new investor, has reportedly invested more amount than Ant Financial in the latest round. The firm is founded by renowned economist Dr. Fred Hu, and has conducted major investments in the mobility sector since last year, including the Series E and F funding of new automobile retailing and financing platform Souche, and leading the 4-billion-yuan (582.8-million-U.S. dollar) Series B+ financing round of electric vehicle manufacturer Xiaopeng.

The participation of Primavera Capital is expected to boost Hello Chuxing in car sharing and hailing. The company has grown from a bike-sharing app to a comprehensive transportation platform that also includes moped-sharing, taxi-hailing, ride-sharing and car-sharing, hence the change of name in September.

On Thursday it is reported that Hello Chuxing is recruiting car owners to start hitch service. Such service has been in controversy since Didi Chuxing suspended its carpool function on August 27 after two female passengers were killed by drivers when using the service.

Previously in October, Hello Chuxing was connected to ride-hailing platform Dida Chuxing, enabling users from 81 cities to call taxi from the latter on the former's app. In November, Hello Chuxing reached cooperation with Shouqi Limousine & Chauffeur to provide car booking service in over 60 cities. 

An industry insider said to NBD that Hello Chuxing's strategy is to entrench its frequently used bike-sharing service first, then use it to facilitate the growth of lower frequency services, similar to that adopted by Meituan, which relied on popular group buying to boost other services.

Email: limenglin@nbd.com.cn