Didi Chuxing raises another $4 billion to fund global ambitions

China’s ride-hailing unicorn Didi Chuxing has completed its second multi-billion funding round in eight months, as the company looks to expand into several new business areas, Caixin reports.

A group of Chinese and overseas investors pumped $4 billion into Didi during the latest financing round, which was led by Japanese telecom giant SoftBank Group, Abu Dhabi’s state fund Mubadala Capital and China’s state-owned utility State Grid Corp, sources close to the deal told Caixin.

The fundraising means that Didi, which holds a nearly 90% share in China’s ride-hailing market, is now valued at around $56 billion, $6 billion more than its valuation during its last funding round in April. Didi was created by a 2015 merger between Tencent Holding-backed Didi Dache and Alibaba Group Holding-backed Kuaidi Dache.

Didi says it will invest the fresh injection of capital into boosting its artificial intelligence capacity, overseas expansion and new-energy vehicle service networks.

The company in April raised $5.5 billion from several investors, with Softbank providing $5 billion. Other investors include China Merchants Bank, Bank of Communication and US private equity fund Silver Lake Partner.