New | ‘Uber for trucks’ is latest Chinese unicorn with Baidu-led US$156 million funding
Latest capital injection follows US$115m December fundraising, which crowned Huochebang (Truck Alliance) a ‘Unicorn – a private firm valued at US$1b or more
An offshoot of Baidu, China’s dominant online search engine operator, has led a US$156 million funding round into the country’s leading online trucking platform, as it ramps up its effort to use artificial intelligence to reshape the booming transportation industry.
Truck Alliance, an ‘Uber-type’ service to book trucks, known locally as “Huochebang (貨車幫)”, said on Tuesday it had completed a new round of financing led by Baidu Capital, the firm’s investment arm which focusses on mid- and late-stage deals in the internet sector.
Huochebang was founded in 2014 in southwest China’s Guizhou province and is also backed by Hong Kong-listed Tencent Holdings and private equity firm All-Stars Investment.
It operates by matching vehicles nationally with commodity producers in need of transport.
It also provides follow-up services, including helping find parking lots, and sells GPS and ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) devices for highway transportation, as well as making money from the sale of toll cards and commissions on the card top-ups, as well as helping truckers with financing.