Chinese ride-hailing startup Caocao Zhuanche has become the Middle Kingdom’s latest unicorn, raising $156 million in a Series A round on a valuation of $1.6 billion.

Virtually unknown outside of China, Caocao Zhuanche was founded in 2015 and operates a ride-hailing service with a difference: It runs and owns a fleet of exclusively electric vehicles manufactured by Geely, the Chinese carmaker that owns Volvo, and it also trains and certifies its drivers.

Described by Deal Street Asia the “first new energy vehicle mobility solutions platform to receive a business license in China,” the company is growing rapidly, operating in 17 cities in mainland China with over 12,000 drivers filling roughly 150,000 orders daily. In eight of the cities in which it operates, it is claimed to be the most popular service by user numbers.

“With over 10 million registered users already, this first round of funding will allow Caocao to provide safe, secure, clean and reliable mobility solutions that include travel services, emissions-free ride-hailing, concierge service and carbon banking to a broader audience,” the company said in a statement.

China, with more than 1 billion people, is a massive market for ride-hailing apps. Market leader Didi Chuxing Technology Co. possibly now the world’s most valuable startup, is worth more than Uber Inc. as of Didi’s last round in December.

Caocao Zhuanche, as a newcomer to the market, is a minnow, but the theoretical future market for ride-hailing services is believed to be much larger yet. China Money Network noted that as of last April, Didi Chuxing’s “market penetration rate” — that is, the level of adoption of a service compared with the local theoretical market for the service — sat at 11.4 percent, followed in second and third place by Yidao Yongche and Shenzhou Zhuanche with 0.9 percent and 0.7 percent respectively.

What that means is that well over 80 percent of the theoretical market for ride-hailing services has yet to be signed up and participating, offering ample opportunities for new market participants.

Photo: Overlaet/Wikimedia Commons