Alibaba Group Holding’s Logistics Unit Gets $1.54B Funding from Investors

Alibaba Logistics business unit

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) disclosed on Monday that its fundraising for its logistics business unit has been completed. The Chinese e-commerce giant’s Zhejiang  Cainiao Supply Chain Management Co. received investments from several investors including Temasek Holdings and GIC Pte Ltd; both are investment companies from Singapore; Khazanah Nasional Bhd from Malaysia and Primavera Capital from China.

Cainiao reportedly valued $7.7 billion

The e-commerce giant did not disclose the amount of money raised from the investors for Cainiao. However, Caixin, a Chinese financial news website indicated that Cainiao received funding of more than 10 billion yuan or around $1.54 billion, bringing its valuation to 50 billion or $7.7 billion.

Alibaba established Cainiao in 2013 with an objective to create a national logistics network over the next five to eight years. The e-commerce giant along with a group of Chinese logistics companies would invest 100 billion yuan or $15.40 billion to achieve that objective.

Alibaba aims to expand its Cainiao’s logistic network globally

Cainiao has 128 warehouses and 180,000 express delivery centers in China. It is currently handling more than 70% of the express packages in the country. During the 11/11 shopping sales in 2014 alone, the logistics company handled 278 million packages.

Alibaba aims to expand Cainiao’s logistics network to 2,800 county districts in China and 224 countries and regions around the world this month. The company is aiming a public offering to support its global expansion. Cainiao President Wenhong Tong wants the logistics company to be able to support at least 200 million package deliveries every day.

In a statement, Ms. Tong said, “If e-commerce was the focus of China’s economy in the past ten years, logistics would be the focus for the next 10.”  She added that the company aims “to make it easy to deliver goods anywhere” not just in China but around the world.

Cainiao previously stated that its network could expand to Brazil, Russia, Spain and the United States.