Abu Dhabi's Mubadala co-leads $300m round for China's JD Industrials

The transaction was concluded through the sovereign wealth fund's China investment programmme

Mubadala is at the centre of the UAE's efforts to diversify its economy and manages more than $284 billion in assets globally. Stephen Lock / The National

Abu Dhabi’s sovereign investment arm Mubadala Investment Company co-led a $300 million series B funding round for China’s industrial supply chain technology company, JD Industrials, alongside global investment manager 42XFund.

“We are pleased to announce that we have closed our investment in JD Industrials, a leading industrial supply chain technology and service provider in China and a subsidiary of JD Group, one of China’s largest online retailers,” Mubadala said on Twitter on Wednesday.

The transaction was concluded through Mubadala’s China investment programme, it added.

Other investors in the round include UK-based asset management group M&G, BPEA EQT — the Asia-focused investment platform of global private equity company EQT, and existing shareholder, Sequoia China, JD Industrials said in a statement.

The proceeds from the round will be "mainly geared towards investing further in infrastructure and technology services, helping JD Industrials to develop more supply chain technology solutions to better serve its enterprise customers", it said.

Part of JD.com, China’s largest online retailer, JD Industrials seeks to become one of the world’s largest industrial technology providers.

"JD Industrials is at the forefront of JD Group’s wider initiatives to serve the real economy by becoming a global leading industry supply chain technology and service provider," it said.

The company aims to "improve the entire industrial supply chain by helping to lower costs, increase efficiency and enable greater operational flexibility", it added.

Once the transaction is completed, JD Group will remain the controlling shareholder.

Mubadala, which is at the centre of the UAE's efforts to diversify its economy, manages more than $284 billion in assets globally.

In recent years, it has stepped up its investment in health care, technology, mobility, clean energy and life sciences as it expands its portfolio.

Earlier this month, Mubadala, private equity company Stone Point Capital and other investors said they were buying a 20 per cent stake in US insurance broker Truist Insurance Holdings for $1.95 billion. The deal values the sixth-largest insurance broker in the US and a unit of Truist Financial Corporation at $14.75 billion.

Global technology growth fund 42XFund, which has been formed by Abu Dhabi’s artificial intelligence company G42 in partnership with Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (ADG), has a global presence in Shanghai, Singapore and Jakarta. It invests at the “intersection of deep technologies and industries of strategic importance to build a better future”, according to its website.