China's Uber for trucks close to securing US$1 billion in funding round to jumpstart driverless technology

Full Truck Alliance Group is close to securing as much as US$1 billion in new funds to replenish its war chest and jumpstart an expansion into driverless technology, according to people familiar with the matter.

China’s biggest online marketplace for long-haul deliveries is in advanced negotiations with new and existing backers, including SoftBank Group Corp and Tencent Holdings, on a funding that could hike its valuation by as much as 40 per cent to US$9 billion, the people said, requesting not to be named discussing private deals. But that is lower than an initial target of US$10 billion, reflecting cooling sentiment toward technology companies, the people added.

Truck Alliance, created by the merger of Huochebang and Yunmanman last year, is building up its marketplace to connect millions of mostly independent truckers. Led by chief executive Wang Gang -- an angel investor in ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing -- it is trying to bring a fragmented, 5 trillion yuan (US$720 billion) arena into the smartphone age. It now wants to get into autonomous vehicles: Truck Alliance recently invested in plus.ai, a Silicon Valley-based driverless truck start-up valued at almost US$1 billion and backed by Sequoia Capital, one of the people said.

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Truck Alliance was looking to raise US$1 billion at a US$10 billion valuation, but that investors were sceptical. People familiar told Bloomberg that the new round was close to getting finalised.

Truck Alliance, known also by its Chinese name Manbang, is proposing a sharply higher valuation based on an estimated 13 billion yuan of revenue this year, one of the people said. It is also promising its backers as much as five-fold growth in 2019 sales, the person added. Truck Alliance declined to comment.