Alibaba's Koubei seen raising US$1 billion to fund expansion

Hong Kong

ALIBABA Group Holding Ltd's affiliate Koubei is seeking to raise US$1 billion of funding as it steps up its battle with China's other web giants for neighbourhood services, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company is seeking a valuation of US$8 billion in the fund-raising, which will help it expand into more cities and add users, the people said, asking to be not named because the matter is private.

Alibaba is focusing on its own local services after selling its stake in Meituan Dianping, a company backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. Chairman Jack Ma has stressed the importance of establishing a foothold beyond e-commerce in "online-to-offline", or O2O, a marke…