DST, a Chinese provider of fleet management solutions for new energy vehicles (NEV), has raised $80 million in a new funding round
DST, which counts Qiming Venture Partners and Matrix Partners China among its early investors, completed the new investment led by “a globally renowned growth fund,” said the firm in a Monday statement. It did not specify the name of the fund.
Several existing shareholders continued to invest in the new round, said DST.
The size of the new investment, however, marks a downgrade from its earlier rounds. This investment came less than two years after DST closed its Series D round at $200 million across two tranches from investors including Ingka Group, the owner of most IKEA stores, and a green energy fund backed by CICC Capital.
Its Series C round, which was completed in May 2021 with $100 million in total, attracted investors such as SMRT Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Singapore’s public transport operator SMRT Corporation. Ingka led the deal, with participation from Matrix Partners China and Bojiang Capital.
In June 2019, DST announced the completion of its $100-million Series B round from Asia-based growth fund Jeneration Capital, Hong Kong-listed financial services provider Far East Horizon, and Paris-based Idinvest Partners.
The fundraising environment continues to be challenging for startups due to multiple adverse factors including macroeconomic slowdowns, tightening liquidity, and valuation corrections across almost all industries.
Startups based in the Greater China region raised a combined $14.1 billion in the third quarter of 2023, down 6.7% from the same period last year. The market is nowhere near the heights seen in the final two quarters of 2021 when over $23.1 billion was raised per quarter by Greater China startups, show proprietary data from DealStreetAsia’s Greater China Deal Review: Q3 2023.
Shenzhen-based DST, officially known as DST Electric Vehicle Rental, was founded in 2015 to provide intelligent digital operation services for logistics NEVs.
With a mission to promote the electrification of urban logistics, the firm partners with logistics companies like SF Express and JD Logistics to offer a range of services including fleet management, vehicle leasing & sales, EV charging solutions, vehicle maintenance, and more.
“With the proceeds, we are poised to make additional investments in deepening our R&D capabilities and expanding our computational analytics infrastructure, ensuring that we remain at the forefront of industry innovation,” said Haiying Zhang, founder and chairman of DST, in the statement.
Its solutions now cover about 100,000 logistics NEVs, serving over 5,000 corporate clients and more than 400,000 drivers throughout its online and offline logistics platform.