Chinese online retail company Alibaba has invested $900m in food delivery start-up Ele.me.
The food delivery service start-up secured an additional $125m (£88m) from Alibaba’s financial affiliate Ant Financial, reported Tech Crunch.
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With the latest investment, the total funding raised by Ele.me so far has reached $2.34bn, reported Business Insider.
Established in 2008, Shanghai-based Ele.me enables people to order takeaways from restaurants that do not offer a delivery service.
Ele.me will continue to operate as an independent company with Alibaba’s executive vice-chairman Joe Tsai joining the company’s board.
Earlier this month, Alibaba signed an agreement to purchase a controlling stake in Lazada, an e-commerce platform in South East Asia.
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By GlobalDataThe transaction comprises a $500m investment in newly issued equity capital, and acquisition of shares from certain shareholders of Lazada, for a total investment of approximately $1bn by Alibaba.
This deal is expected to help brands and distributors that operate on Alibaba’s platform, as well as local merchants, to access the consumer market in South East Asia.
Lazada currently operates e-commerce platforms in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
