Bike-sharing start-up Ofo raises USD 866 million

Bicycle-sharing platform provider, Ofo today said it has raised USD 866 million in a round of funding led by the Alibaba Group.
The funding also saw participation from Haofeng Group, Tianhe Capital, Ant Financial and Junli Capital.
The strategic financing presents the highest funding record in the bicycle-sharing industry, ofo said in a statement.
"As a precedent of asset mobilisation in the bike-sharing industry, Ofo uses a combination of debt and equity financing for this round," the statement said.
"As a global leader in the bike-sharing sector, Ofo has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development," Ofo Founder-CEO, Dai Wei said.

"Ofo will continue to put our customers first and lead the bike-sharing industry with technological innovation and efficient operations," he said.

Ofo currently has operations in 21 countries with over 200 million global users totalling to 32 million rides per day, the statement said.
In January, Ofo announced foray in Tamil Nadu with a pilot project launched at Kumaraguru College of Technology in Coimbatore.
Under the initiative, ofo would deploy 100 plus bi-cycles across the entire campus and would be available as a means of easy commute.