Uber China closes $1b funding round

An Uber driver was arrested by police in Chengdu, Sichuan province after being accused of pulling a knife on a female passenger, robbing her and then molesting her.

Uber is one of the most popular car-hailing apps in China, but is now gaining a poor reputation.

Chinese financial conglomerate Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China Ltd’s investment arm and Hillhouse Capital, which has a stake in the main US-based Uber business, also took part, the person said. He threatened to release the pictures to the public if she were to report the incident to the police.

Kristin Carvell, a spokeswoman for Uber said by email then “We cannot comment on specific numbers, but we’ve seen tremendous enthusiasm -greater than expected -from investors both in terms of the amount invested and the total valuation”.

Safety concerns over the country’s ride-hailing app market were in the spotlight in June when a driver was detained for sexually assaulting a drunk female passenger. She took about two weeks before reporting the attack.

On Wednesday, he was arrested for robbery and forcible molestation of a woman. A 26-year-old woman in New Delhi sued Uber after she was raped by one of its drivers in December. A court later rejected the ban, saying the state could strictly regulate app-based taxi companies but that it did not favor an outright ban.

The made-in-China service -that has the backing of Internet giants such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. – is going pretty strong and managed to raise a colossal $2 billion from investors recently.

The Chengdu attack has caused outrage online.

“You can never know who’s behind the mask in hire cars”, said another.