Carlyle Group invests US$85 million in vending machine operator Ubox to tap China’s evolving e-commerce boom

Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest buyout funds, said on Thursday it will invest US$85 million in Ubox to help expand the Chinese vending machine operator's network and give consumers a better-quality service. 

The deal tesitifies to the enduring power of the world’s second-largest economy in attracting interest from wealthy foreign funds to its booming e-commerce industry. 

Carlyle's investment will “further expand [Ubox’s] vending machine network and consumer coverage in China, improve its digital marketing and advertising business, and explore other value-added services for its customers,” a representative of the group told the South China Morning Post by email.

For several years, Ubox’s customers have been able to shop online via its mobile app and collect their drinks or snacks from its network of interactive vending machines, which now number over 30,000 and are spread across 58 Chinese cities. 

Ubox said it will use the money to accelerate its online to offline operations (O2O), which involves guiding internet users to convenient physical stores and services nearby.