BEIJING: China's Didi Chuxing has raised $1.5 billion for its freight unit, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, as the ride hailing giant expands its service portfolio.

The funding, the unit's first round, was led by investors including Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings, CPE and IDG Capital, said the source, who declined to be named as the issue is not public.

Didi, which is backed by SoftBank, declined to comment but said it is confident about reaching growth goals this year, without elaborating. Temasek and IDG Capital did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Reuters was not able to immediately reach CPE outside office hours.

Didi is hiring van and truck drivers in big Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, eastern Hangzhou and southern Shenzhen for its on-demand logistics services in an expansion of its operations in China with its CEO Cheng Wei setting a goal of completing 100 million orders a day and reaching 800 million monthly active users globally by 2022.

Didi has mobility services including ride-hailing, hitch, and bike sharing, and is developing auto-related businesses such as autonomous driving and fleet management operations with automakers.

The on-demand logistics services sector in China however is considered to be a crowded market, with Manbang, Huolala and Kuaigou as market leaders.