Chinese ride-sharing startup DiDi Chuxing raised $4.4 billion in U.S. IPO at a valuation of about $73 billion

Chinese ride-hailing startup and Uber competitor, DiDi Chuxing, has been aiming to go public since April of 2018. The day finally came today when the unicorn startup raised $4.4 billion in its U.S. IPO, pricing it at the top of its indicated range.

Instead of the planned 288 million, DiDi sold 316.8 million American Depository Shares (ADS) at $14 apiece, giving the company a valuation of about $73 billion on a fully diluted basis and $67.5 billion on a non-diluted basis. DiDi is expected to debut on the New York Stock Exchange later today.

Back in 2018, Didi was reportedly in talks to launch an $80 billion IPO, according to The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. The company was previously valued at more than $56 billion as of April 2017. The company could go public as early as the second half of 2018, according to the unnamed sources that told the WSJ.

Founded in 2012 by Cheng Wei, DiDi Chuxing is a mobile transportation ride-sharing platform, AI, and autonomous technology conglomerate, offering a full range of transportation services to more than 450 million users across over 400 cities in China. Headquartered in Beijing, DiDi provides services including taxi hailing, private ride-hailing, Hitch (social ride-sharing), DiDi Chauffeur, DiDi Bus, DiDi Test Drive, DiDi Car Rental, DiDi Enterprise Solutions, DiDi Minibus, DiDi Luxe, and bike-sharing to users in China via a smartphone application. DiDi has nearly 9,000 employees with 40 percent women.

DiDi is now the world’s largest and most valuable ride-sharing company, with an investment and M&A portfolio in the ride and bike-sharing industry across the globe. The company carries 25 million rides per day, far surpassing the combined daily rides of all the other ride-sharing companies around the world. Now, Didi is ahead of the race against its US competitor, Uber, to conquer the global ride-hailing market, which according to an estimate from Goldman Sachs, is expected to grow to $285bn by 2030.