Dada-JD Daojia, a Chinese online grocery and delivery firm, announced on Thursday that it has raised 500 million US dollars from Walmart Inc and JD.com Inc, which marks the accomplishment of its latest round of financing.
In the latest fundraising, Walmart invested about 320 million US dollars. The company’s strategic cooperation with Dada-JD Daojia dates back to 2016 when it invested 50 million US dollars, the company said. A total of 200 Walmart stores in 30 major Chinese cities now have a presence in JD Daojia.
“We are confident that this deeper collaboration with Dada-JD Daojia will enhance our omni-channel footprint and deliver a better O2O (online to offline) customer experience,” said Wern-Yuen Tan, president and CEO for Walmart China.
The first Walmart in China where smartphones can be used to pay for items and is available on the JD.com online platform, in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. / VCG Photo
The company, partly owned by JD.com, comprises of two businesses. Dada, covering over 400 major cities and operating a network of five million delivery men, provides services for more than 1.2 million business users and 50 million individual users.
JD Daojia, owning over 50 million registered users, partners with retail stores and offers one-hour delivery services of groceries and other items in nearly 40 cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
“Through adopting customized solutions and cooperating with first-class retail enterprises, we will realize further improvements in area-effectiveness, commodity sales rate and sales volume, and provide better services for our customers,” said Kuai Jiaqi, Dada-JD Daojia’s founder and CEO.
The global retail giant has been pushing to integrate its retail network in China with the country’s burgeoning “smart retail” movement, as retailers and tech giants such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd cut deals to combine shoppers’ online and offline experience.
Alibaba is China’s top e-commerce player, while Tencent is strong in social media and gaming and has, along with Walmart, a considerable stake in number two online retailer JD.com.
