FULL Truck Alliance Group is close to securing as much as US$1 billion in new funds to replenish its war chest and jumpstart an expansion into driverless technology, according to sources familiar with the matter.

China’s biggest online marketplace for long-haul deliveries is in advanced negotiations with new and existing backers including SoftBank Group Corp. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. on a funding that could hike its valuation by as much as 40 percent to US$9 billion, the sources said. But that’s lower than an initial target of US$10 billion, reflecting cooling sentiment toward tech companies, the sources added.

Truck Alliance, created by the merger of Huochebang and Yunmanman last year, is building up its marketplace to connect millions of mostly independent truckers.

Led by chief executive officer Wang Gang — an angel investor in ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing — it’s trying to bring a fragmented, 5-trillion-yuan (US$720 billion) arena into the smartphone age. It now wants to get into autonomous vehicles: Truck Alliance recently invested in plus.ai, a Silicon Valley driverless truck startup valued at almost US$1 billion and backed by Sequoia Capital, one of the sources said.

The Wall Street Journal this month reported Truck Alliance was looking to raise US$1 billion at a US$10 billion valuation but that investors were skeptical. Sources familiar said that the new round was close to getting finalized.

Truck Alliance — known also by its Chinese name Manbang — is proposing a sharply higher valuation based on an estimated 13 billion yuan of revenue this year, one of the sources said.

(SD-Agencies)