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The Cainiao news is not the first foray into Chinese logistics for Temasek, it invested US$250 million in a commerce warehouse in 2014
The logistics arm of Alibaba, Zhejiang Cainiao Supply Chain Management Co. (Cainiao), has raised an undisclosed funding round that includes participation from Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, according to a report from Reuters.
Other investors included another Singaporean company in GIC Pte., Malaysia’s Khazanah Nasional Bhd. and a Chinese investment firm called Primavera Capital.
The amount of the funding is undisclosed but the report did say this is the company’s first external investment since its founding in May 2013.
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While not officially confirmed by Cainiao or Alibaba, Beijing-based media company Caixin valued the logistics company at US$7.7 billion.
Cainiao is pursuing a mandate of providing same-day delivery in 50 cities in China by the end of 2015. According to Aliza, the Alibaba corporate blog.
Besides simply logistics, Cainiao is something of a Big Data company, using order trends, route updates and even weather patterns to improve delivery efficiency.
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As for Temasek, the Singapore government-owned investment company, the move is consistent with its previousinterest in the Chinese logistics industry. In 2014, the firm invested US$250 million in a Chinese warehouse firm named Shanghai Yupei Group (which provided warehouses for a range of consumer businesses).
Currently, Cainiao has distribution centers in 12 key cities, 1,200 villages and is capable of international shipping to 217 countries.
The news comes a week after the financial-services arm of Alibaba, Ant Financial, was reported to be raising a US$3.1 billion round at a US$50 billion valuation.
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