O2O gets financing from Citi Ventures, Alibaba

China’s top online-to-offline information service provider, ddmap.com, received financing on Thursday from Citi Ventures and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, the Chinese news portal qq.com reported.

“The new cooperation will help ddmap.com to accelerate establishing mobile services,” the report said, citing company CEO Xu Longjiang.

The move will provide Alibaba an opportunity to do O2O business with the local service sector, and Alibaba is likely to team up with ddmap in online payment services, according to Xu.

Ddmap was not available for comment when reached by China Daily on Thursday.

The O2O website has more than 13 million users in about 40 cities across China.

The amount of the financing remains unclear, but the Shanghai-based startup had received $40 million from investors such as F&H Fund Management in April.

A separate, Reuters report suggested that ddmap had lured about $60 million to date.