Chinese ecommerce giant Meituan-Dianping to acquire bike-sharing startup Mobike.

Fledgling bike-sharing startup Mobike is to be acquired by Chinese e-commerce giant Meituan-Dianping. Terms of the deal were not officially disclosed, but local media reports have pegged the value of the transaction at $2.7 billion.

Launched initially in Shanghai back in 2016, Mobike rolled out to dozens of cities across China before going international last year starting in Singapore, followed by the U.K., Japan, and a number of other markets. The company made its debut in the U.S. in September, kicking off in Washington D.C.

Mobike had raised around $1 billion in venture funding, with big-name backers including Sequoia, Tencent, and Line.

Competition

One reason Mobike may have elected to sell is due to the increasing competition in the so-called “dockless” bike-sharing space. E-taxi giant Didi Chuxing announced it was entering the bike-sharing space back in January, while another Chinese bike-sharing company called Ofo — funded to the tune of more than $2 billion — entered its first U.S. market in August.

By Paul Sawer.

Full story at Venture Beat.