HONG KONG/BEIJING: Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer XPeng, backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd , said on Wednesday it has raised US$400 million from investors including Xiaomi Corp to fund its growth.
XPeng, which announced the fundraising in a statement, did not comment on its valuation. But the sources said the latest fundraising valued the five-year-old firm, led by 42-year-old tech entrepreneur He Xiaopeng, at nearly US$4 billion, higher than the 25 billion yuan valuation in the last funding round.
With Xiaomi, XPeng will explore more applications of smart phone technologies on intelligent connected vehicles, said one of the sources."The signing of the new fundraising, which not only attracted new strategic investors such as Xiaomi Corporation but also received strong support from many of our current shareholders, is a renewed endorsement of our long-term strategy," XPeng chief executive He said in the statement.
XPeng also secured"several billions" of yuan-dominated unsecured credit lines from banks including China Merchants Bank , China CITIC Bank and HSBC , the statement said, without specifying figures.