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This China Online Food Service Raised $1.25 Billion From Alibaba

BYReuters
April 13, 2016, 11:02 AM UTC
Key Speakers At Day Three Of The APEC CEO Summit
Billionaire Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., speaks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in Manila, the Philippines, on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015. Businesses and people should be free to trade because it's a human right and represents freedom, Ma told the APEC summit. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Photograph by SeongJoon Cho — Bloomberg via Getty Images

Chinese online food-delivery service company Ele.me has raised $1.25 billion from Alibaba Group Holding and its arm, Ant Financial Services Group, according to an Ele.me statement on its official Weibo microblog on Wednesday.

Ele.me said Alibaba (BABA) invested $900 million while Ant Financial invested $350 million. It didn’t provide any further details of the transaction.

Ele.me, which roughly translates as ‘Hungry Now?’, is part of a trend in China for what is known as online-to-offline (O2O) services. These include taxi hailing and restaurant review apps that link smartphone users with offline businesses.

Alibaba did not have an immediate comment when contacted by Reuters.

Leading business weekly Caixin reported in December that Alibaba had agreed to invest $1.25 billion in the food-delivery firm for a 27.7% stake.