Alibaba plans to dominate the smart e-commerce sector

Alibaba has made another investment in the Chinese retail market, this time into a vending machine manufacturer.

Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial said that it had invested Rmb1.2 billion $169 million in Beijing-based Ubox Online.

Primavera Capital also participated in the round, contributing about Rmb400 million $56 million to the funding.

Proceeds will be used to expand the presence of Ubox’s vending machines together with Ant Financial’s technology. The vending machine manufacturer hopes to be a platform provider to serve the robust development of Chinese e-commerce.

Ubox sells vending machines that allow customers to pay via cash, mobile payments and...