Baojia Car Rental announced on December 9 that it had raised US$30 million in its round A financing, with Ether Capital acting as sole financial advisor, from leading investors including Pingan Ventures and Qiming Venture Partners. They are joined by 58.com and had several angel investors including from 58.com CEO Jinbo Yao and XCar.com CEO Jingqiu Zhang.
Baojia Car Rental was launched in March by the founder and co-director of Nasdaq-listed Xueda Education Group Rubin Li. It already received a US$5 million angel investment in May.
Mr. Li said this round’s funds will be used to expand brand marketing and offer price subsidies for users. In the future Baojia Car Rental will leverage the car insurance services of Pingan Ventures’ parent Pingan Group and the resources of urban lifestyle site 58.com. It will enter into close collaboration with the two companies to develop credit investigation for car sharing, vehicle insurance and the localization of motor pools.
The success of a car-sharing model hinges on high-density network coverage and smooth smartphone app operations and this requires an online platform operation to penetrate each urban market and build customer bases and motor pools in each location.
Meanwhile, stiff competition in the white-hot car-sharing sector is expected as companies pick up the pace of development.(Translation by David)
