(Yicai Global) April 26 -- Hello Chuxing, one of China’s top bike-sharing platforms backed by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, has applied to go public on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

The money will be used to expand its business scope, increase investment in research and development as well as supplement working capital, according to the filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission submitted on April 24.

Although, no fundraising goals were given, a report published last month by news site Jiemian put the target amount at about USD2 billion.

A unit of fintech giant Ant Group, an affiliate of Hangzhou-based Alibaba, is Hello Chuxing’s biggest shareholder with a 36.3 percent stake. This is followed by company co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Yang Lei. Other major stakeholders include battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology and investment firms Primavera Capital, GGV Capital, Chengwei Capital as well as Shanghai Fosun Capital Investment Management.

So far the Shanghai-based company, also known as Hello TransTech, has completed 15 rounds of funding in its five-year history. The latest G-series last month raised USD234 million, led by Ningde, southeastern Fujian province-based CATL.

Yet the company continues to lose money. It ran up losses of CNY1.13 billion (USD174 million) in 2020, a narrowing of 25 percent from the year before. Revenue, though, jumped by 25.3 percent to CNY6 billion (USD930.9 million), according to the prospectus.

It has started to diversity aggressively. Last year Hello Chuxing took on sector leader Didi Chuxing with a new offering Hello Dache that provides carsharing and carpooling services. It has also been following industry giant Meituan into the life services field with new ‘intra-city logistics’ and ‘bulk buying’ services.

The business, operated by Shanghai Junzheng Network Technology, boasts over 400 million registered users and its services are available in over 460 cities. It had a gross trade volume of CNY13 billion (USD2 billion) last year, completing 5.2 billion transactions.

Editor: Kim Taylor