DST Raises $100 Million In Series C Funding Round

Chinese electric vehicle logistics provider, DST Car Rentals has announced that it has closed its latest round of investment for Series C funding. This final round of investment has raised a total of USD 100 million. The investment was led by the Ingka Investments (part of Ingka Group), followed by SMRT Ventures, China Securities Investment Capital, and existing shareholders including Bojiang Capital and Matrix Partners China. While TH Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor.

The amount of money raised by this investment will be used to add new aptitudes to its digital platform, develop its maintenance network and enter international markets.

Speaking of their targets, the founder of DST, Haiying Zhang stated, “We will continue to build our digital platform and expand our operations network. We aim to increase the value of our services through vehicle life-cycle management, further increase vehicle efficiency and fully capture the value of data and digitization. Our ambition is to standardize the intra-city logistics EVs and increase the efficiency of China’s new energy industry.”

DST provides EV operation and management services for logistics companies. It offers rental services for electrical trucks and vans, along with a full set of aftermarket services to its clients and drivers through its offline and online platforms.

“In addition, DST is entering new and international markets. By leveraging our online platform and offline service capabilities, we aim to build a world-class digital platform for new energy logistics vehicle management,” Zhang added further.

Talking about the investment, “We are delighted with this new minority investment in DST, as it’s another step in enabling IKEA Retail to continue providing last-mile EV delivery services to our customers, continue to improve on our customer promise, while also reducing our environmental footprint,” said Krister Mattsson, Managing Director of Ingka Investments.

Krister further said, “IKEA Retail China has been closely working with DST since 2019, in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Changsha, and Zhengzhou. Their EV vehicles provide one-third of transport capacity for IKEA customers and have supported cities like Shanghai is already achieving 100% electric deliveries.”