As Hellobike’s ambition to raise at least USD 500 million became public, 15 of its early shareholders are withdrawing their investment. It looks like this is part of ongoing restructuring at the firm.
Hellobikes registered capital has dropped drastically from RMB 1.03 billion (USD 153 million) to RMB 43 million recently, company registration records show. 15 early supporters of HelloBike, including CGV Capital, Bertelsmann Asia Investments, Shanghai Fuson High Technology, and WM Motors, have withdrawn their investments.
The nature of the company has subsequently changed from Sino-foreign joint venture to a private enterprise.
It’s unclear why investors dropped their support for a rising star in the Chinese bike-sharing market. Its valuation stood at USD 2.3 billion last June, but the failures of fellow bike-sharing startups to turn any profits might have made it more difficult for HelloBike to woo investors. Both Mobike and Ofo are saddled with debt and had to close some of their operations to cut costs.
Hellobike closed an RMB 4 billion series G funding round led by big-name investors Ant Financial and Primavera Capital last September. The company handled more than 20 million rides on a daily basis last year.
An unnamed source familiar with the matter told the Beijing News that the changes were due to a restructuring of the company.
The firm just a few months ago announced that it’s changing its name from Hellobike to Hello Chuxing and has begun to offer more ride-sharing options beyond bikes.
HelloBike’s CEO and founder Yang Lei has not replied to KrASIA‘s inquiry as of press time.