SHANGHAI: Baidu Inc said on Friday it had led an investment round into green car start-up NextEV, as the Chinese search engine giant looks for new growth drivers and as competition heats up in the fast-growing electric vehicles market.
Baidu is expanding into areas outside its core search and advertising business to make up for sales which have taken a hit from a tighter regulations and subsidy wars in different segments with rivals such as Alibaba.
“We can confirm that Baidu has led investment in this round of funding,” a spokeswoman said in a comment sent to Reuters on Friday. She declined to give an investment figure or name the co-investors, but local media reported the overall funding round was valued at up to $600 million.
China has splashed out billions of dollars in subsidies to promote greener cars, creating a gold-rush among unknown start-ups, but is now tightening its grip on the world’s biggest electric vehicle market to weed out weaker domestic firms. — Reuters
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