Keking Completes Series C Funding of RMB1 Billion Led by Ant Financial and Centurium Capital

Shanghai, December 3, 2018 – Keking announced today that it has completed series C funding of RMB1 billion, led by Ant Financial and Centurium Capital, and co-investors include Sequoia, Tebon Securities and Tenglan Industry. For Ant Financial, the investment into Keking is of strategic value as it is the first investment into the SME fin-tech field following the introduction of “new logistics” concept at the 2018 Global Smart Logistics Summit.

Ant Financial will partner with Keking to offer big data, technology and financial service to best meet the demands of logistic SMEs and trucking drivers. Previously, Keking has received series A funding of RMB100 million from Sequoia Capital in December 2015. The company completed series B funding of RMB200 million in December 2016 led by AVIC Trust and participated by Sequoia Capital, Tebon Securities and Fellow Partners.  

Logistics is the backbone of real economy that connects manufacturers and distributors to customers. In 2017, China’s total logistic expenditure of private sector was RMB12 trillion, accounting for around 15% of GDP, much higher than that of developed economies. However, the sector growth is hindered by the fact that trucking SMEs and drivers in logistics sectors in China are generally lack of financing options, IT support.

"Keking is committed to providing digital and intelligent solutions to logistics sector, leveraging mobile internet and SaaS technologies to improve the efficiency and convenience for SMEs and drivers,” commented Shiwei Zhang, founder and CEO of Keking. The company currently offers cloud-based SaaS solutions to SMEs in the whole logistics value chain and drivers and services including vehicle management, payment settling and financial services. In addition, Keking has developed AI-supported risk assessment tools to evaluate the credit status of logistics SMEs and drivers, provide financial services solutions such as freight and truck purchase installment.

Founded in July 2015, Keking’s founding team members have experiences in both the banking and logistics sector, including China Merchants Bank (CMB), Bank of China, China Unicom and Deppon Logistics. Shiwei Zhang, Founder and CEO, was head of big data team of credit card center of CMB, and was awarded "Excellent Individual of National Financial System in 2013". Over the past three years, Keking has provided services to over 10,000 SMEs and 1 million drivers; the annual transaction volume of the platform reached RMB70 billion, covering over 600,000 vehicles in 25 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. The accumulated transaction volume of inclusive financing products provided to SMEs and drivers reached nearly RMB20 billion.