GoGoVan, often billed as the ‘Uber for delivery,’ is an app-based service that operates a fleet of vans in Hong Kong for delivery purposes.
Last year GoGoVan merged with 58 Suyun, an online freight business, to become Hong Kong’s first unicorn. “Following the merger, the combined entity is known as 58 Suyun in China and GoGoVan outside the country,” according to Deal Street Asia.
“We will use the new funds to expand our service offering and grow new markets,” reads a LinkedIn post from the GoGoVan company page. The post goes on to announce that within the next few months, GoGoVan plans to offer “door-to-door service, to fulfill the demand of small-item segment.”
The $250 million is “the first phase of its new round of funding” that was led by VC firm InnoVision Capital. Alibaba’s logistics unit Cainiao Network (according to Tech in China, in May Cainiao committed to investing $15.6 billion “to worldwide delivery”), Russia-China Investment Fund, Hongrun Capital, Qianhai Fund of Funds and 58 Daojia Group all participated.
In April, TechNode wrote “Hong Kong is a breeding ground for potential unicorns,” saying that the number of Hong Kong-based startups has increased “drastically” over the last few years and the city also one of the “fastest growing startup ecosystems in the world.”
In May, The South China Morning Post wrote about how Nicolas Aguzin, the chairman and CEO of Asia-Pacific at JPMorgan, predicted a “huge number of Chinese tech unicorns [are] likely to IPO in Hong Kong” this year.
