Yixin Capital, an online automobile financing platform backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd, Baidu Inc., JD.com and BitAuto Holdings Ltd, has raised a RMB4 billion (US$580 million) new funding round.
BitAuto, Tencent, SF Express's founder Wang Wei and China Orient Asset Management participated in the deal, which will be completed at the end of this month.
Once complete, BitAuto, which was founded by William Li, who also founded Chinese electric vehicle start-up NIO, will hold a 48% stake in Yixin. In addition, Yixin Capital will renamed Yixin Group after the funding round.
Founded in 2014, the start-up partners with financial institutions and provides a number of automobile financing products including loans for new car and secondhand car, car leasing, car insurances and credit cards for vehicle owners. The company says it has provided services to more than 100 million users in over 300 cities in China.
As of March 2017, Yixin has over RMB20 billion (US$3 billion) in assets. In 2015, the company raised a RMB2.5 billion (US$360 million) from BitAuto, Tencent and JD.com. In August 2016 it received an additional US$550 million from Tencent, Baidu and JD.com, and the three companies together made another US$1 billion funding round in Yixin last month.
Two months ago, the platform announced a RMB20 billion (US$3 billion) strategic partnership with Zhongtai Securities Co Ltd.