Chinese taxi app raising $1.5b to battle Uber

China's top taxi hailing app backed by tech giants Alibaba and Tencent will raise at least $1.5 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, as the company gears up to take on Uber in the country's expanding transportation market.

The amount values Xiaoju Kuaizhi, which runs the combined Didi and Kuadi apps, at $12 billion to $15 billion and the money will come from new and old investors, Bloomberg said, without elaborating.

The popularity of private-car booking enterprises such as Uber and China's dominant taxi-hailing apps Kuaidi and Didi has soared in the country, where traditional taxis are criticised for poor service with rude drivers who routinely ignore customers on the street.