CHINA’S Uber-for-trucks startup Full Truck Alliance said it’s weighing an initial public offering after breaking even from May, defying a sector-wide downturn.

The company, which is backed by SoftBank Group Corp. and Tencent Holdings Ltd., said its improved financial performance dovetailed with its decision not to follow through on a plan to raise as much as US$1 billion in a private round, chief financial officer Richard Zhang said during an interview with Bloomberg TV.

“We broke even both in the accounting and cash flow sense,” said Zhang. “I don’t want to commit to a timetable here, but eventually we probably want to go for an IPO.”

The company also hasn’t decided whether it will need to do a pre-IPO round, Zhang added.

Despite dominating the truck-sharing sector in China, Full Truck Alliance is now confronted with the same challenges that on-demand businesses worldwide face — proving its business model can lead to sustainable revenue and profit growth.

Bets on a once red-hot Chinese technology sector are cooling alongside waning economic growth. In July, investments made by venture capital and private equity firms dropped 60 percent to 407 cases, while the amount plummeted around 78 percent to 32.8 billion yuan (US$4.6 billion), according to research consultant Zero2IPO.

Formed by a merger between China’s two largest truck-sharing platforms — Huochebang and Yunmanman — the company has attracted backers including Sequoia and Alphabet Inc.’s CapitalG. (SD-Agencies)