May 28, 2021 - World

China's Full Truck Alliance files for U.S. IPO

Illustration of two dump trucks dumping piles of money.

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Full Truck Alliance, a Chinese platform that connects shippers and truckers, filed for an IPO that could raise at least $1.5 billion at a $30 billion valuation.

Why it matters: The company, also known as Manbang Group, claims to be the world's largest digital freight platform by gross transaction value, and reflects how there's still plenty of money to squeeze from the "Uber for everything" trend.

Details: Full Truck Alliance plans to list on the NYSE (YMM) and reports a $25 million profit on $396 million in revenue for 2020.

  • It raised $3.6 billion in private funding, most recently last fall at an $11.7 billion valuation, from firms like SoftBank Vision Fund (22.2% pre-IPO stake), Sequoia Capital China (7.2%), Permira, Tencent, Hillhouse Capital, GGV Capital, Lightspeed China Partners and Baillie Gifford.

The bottom line: "China's logistics market is becoming increasingly competitive. Full Truck Alliance competes with other companies such as Huolala. And giants such as Alibaba and Tencent are also putting more emphasis on growing their own logistics businesses," CNBC writes.

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