Chinese taxi hailing app Didi Kuaidi (Xiaoju Kuaizhi Inc.) looks set to increase its current funding round of $1.5 billion with news that it is already oversubscribed.

The news of a possible increase in the round came via a letter to investors from Didi Kuaidi Chief Executive Officer Cheng Wei, which explained that the offering was oversubscribed, and that the company would “possibly increase its fundraising target.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, Didi Kuaidi is now looking at a $2 billion round, but still on the $15 billion valuation reported earlier this month.

Cheng’s letter to investors also detailed the latest usage stats for the company, with daily private car-requests reported to have tripled since May to three million, giving it, by its own estimation, 80 percent of the Chinese market; previous estimates had placed their share between 78 percent to 95 percent market.

Main competitor and western upstart Uber, Inc. by comparison claims to provide over one million rides per day in the country.

Didi Kauidi only came into existence in February, but as the result of the merger of China’s two leading taxi hailing apps KuaiDi Dache and Didi Dache; both still trade as separate entities under the merged holding company.

The combined entity offers services in some 360 Chinese cities, giving it a huge advantage over Uber who only operates in 11 cities, although under a $1 billion expansion program it plans to be operating in as many as 50 cities over the next 12 months.

Expanding horizons

According to our estimates, the company has raised at least $1.425 billion to-date; Kuaidi Dache had raised at least $725 million in funding from investors including SoftBank Internet and Media Inc., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, New Horizon Capital and Matrix Partners.

Didi Dache raised $700 million from Temasek Holding Ltd., Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Russia’s DST Global in December.

Given that they are already in a bucket-load of cities and seemingly hold the dominant position in the market, besides defending its market share again Uber, what else could Didi Kuaidi use the extra money for?

The answer is in the investor letter, with Cheng writing:

“Our platform strategy also leaves huge room for adjacent products and services ranging from public transportation to logistics to auto services, as well as financing, mapping technologies and location-based services, among others.”

Didi Kuaidi is already experimenting with premium car services and car pooling, so the addition of transport-related products is an interesting, yet surprisingly solid idea for the company as it tries to make itself the core transport service in China, that would bring more and more users to its core services, while bringing in new revenue streams, and therefore growth for the company along the way.

The has been no date given as to when the round may close, or when a formal announcement of an increase may be forthcoming.

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