Before the IPO, SoftBank’s Vision Fund held a 21.5% stake in Didi, and its 21.5% voting power exceeded that of Didi’s three founders, Cheng Wei, Liu Qing and Zhu Jingshi. As some of the early investors were eager to cash out, Didi repurchased around 18.3 million shares from shareholders as of May.Īmong Didi’s biggest shareholders, Softbank faces the greatest pressure to cash out. It promised them an IPO in fundraising agreements. flotation without a blessing from Beijing at least partly because it has been under pressure from shareholders impatient to exit from their investments. As of Friday’s close, its stake was worth just around $11.2 billion, making the bet barely profitable.ĭidi rushed into a U.S. SoftBank invested nearly $11 billion in Didi starting in 2015. initial public offering (IPO) June 30 sent its shares plunging, dealing those investors a hard blow, especially its biggest shareholder, Japan’s Softbank Group. Through 23 rounds of financing, Didi raised more than $35 billion from nearly 100 investors, valuing the company as high as $62 billion in an August 2020 fundraising round.Ĭhina’s abrupt crackdown on Didi after its $4.4 billion U.S. Like many money-losing tech startups, dominant Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing has relied heavily on private equity financing since its inception in 2012.
