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Those who believe that the dockless-bike boom will fizzle out once the Chinese start-ups burn through their VC cash will have to readjust their clocks – Ofo has just raised an additional $1bn. Existing investors, including Alibaba, China’s largest online retailer, are behind the latest cash injection, reports the Financial Times. There is as yet no official word from Ofo.
Ofo has put 10 million dockless bike-share bikes into Chinese cities, and is expanding fast in the US and Europe, too – on Wednesday Ofo launched in Paris and its bikes are also available in two London boroughs.
By the end of 2017, Ofo plans to deploy 20 million bikes in 200 cities in 20 countries.
The latest venture capital injection is in addition to the £541m Ofo raised in July this year.
