Koubei is an Alibaba affiliate local-commerce platform founded as a joint venture by Alibaba and Ant Financial in 2015. It aims to generate business for local retailers by bringing them online and is integrated inside Alipay. The article cites examples such as helping a local pizza chain reach new customers or making a pop grocer more accessible. Alibaba and Ant Financial initially invested RMB 3 billion (about $480 million at the time) when Koubei was created. According to Alibaba’s latest data, $10.5 million (RMB 73.1 billion) was spent through Alipay on the Koubei service during Alibaba’s Q3 period, a 52 percent increase on the previous quarter. The company faces heavy competition from Meituan‑Dianping, Baidu and Ele.me, and Alibaba did not disclose Koubei’s current losses, though the article suggests it is likely burning cash. Alibaba said the new funding provides Koubei with a strong capital base to execute an aggressive growth strategy. Koubei is a joint venture created to focus on shopping, dining and hyperlocal online-to-offline (O2O) commerce and ultra-fast local deliveries. Alibaba and Ant Financial will each hold a 50% equity stake and have committed capital to scale Koubei's services. Taodiandian (Alibaba’s restaurant delivery business) and several of Ant Financial’s offline merchant services—including vending machines and tools for healthcare retailers—will be folded into Koubei. Ant Financial will provide merchant tools and leverage Alipay, China’s largest mobile payments platform, to support merchants on the platform. Alibaba has been investing heavily in its mobile businesses—which the article says has put pressure on its bottom line—and is expanding its logistics network to enable next-day deliveries of items like fresh produce and prescription drugs. Samuel Fan is Koubei’s CEO and says the JV will harness mobile commerce and data technology to build synergies between offline consumption and internet-based offerings.

Total raised

$1.6B

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Jan 2017