JD.com’s E-Commerce Unit Nets $500 Million in Fundraising

Dada-JD Daojia, the delivery and grocery e-commerce unit of JD.com Inc., has announced it has completed a $500 million fundraising round from its parent company and U.S. supermarket chain Walmart Inc.

Dada-JD Daojia didn’t say in a statement on Thursday how the $500 million was divided between the two investors.

Dada-JD Daojia was formed in April 2016 when JD.com, China’s second-largest e-commerce company, merged JD Daojia into Dada — a short-distance logistics provider — to take a 47% stake in the merged company. The JD Daojia platform has more than 50 million registered users, and Dada served more than 1.2 million merchants across the country, according to the company.

JD.com’s cooperation with Walmart dates back to December 2016, when the two companies signed an agreement to sell products on the JD Daojia mobile app.

“By working with strong partners, and investing in digital capabilities, we will create an easier and more-convenient shopping experience for customers,” Walmart China CEO Wern-Yuen Tan said. “We are confident that this deeper collaboration with Dada-JD Daojia will enhance our footprint and deliver a better O2O (online-to-offline) customer experience.”

About 200 Walmart stores in 30 major cities have joined the Dada-JD Daojia platform, according to the statement.

Dada-JD Daojia said its online orders can be delivered within one hour. The company has also partnered with some of largest convenience stores in China, including the Japanese “big three” brands — FamilyMart, Lawson, and 7-Eleven.

JD.com’s involvement in this fundraising round also highlights the effort to broaden its presence in the physical retail market. In February, JD.com said it would acquire a 5% stake in the supermarket chain Better Life Commercial Chain Share Co. Ltd., whose stores are located mostly in western China, for 739 million yuan ($108.2 million).

JD.com’s larger rival, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., has also ramped up effort to expand offline. In May, the technology titan said it has recently opened 10 stores of its own supermarket chain — named Hema — in 10 Chinese cities, expanding its network to 46 stores in 13 cities across the country.

Contact reporter Mo Yelin (yelinmo@caixin.com)