Alibaba bought the remaining stake of Ele.me it did not already own in April in a deal that valued the startup at $9.5 billion yuan.





"We expect Alibaba to continue to invest billions of yuan in Ele.me's development," said Wang. "Funds are not our core issue right now."





Alibaba is beefing up Ele.me's war chest at a time when the cost of expanding in China's food delivery market is rising sharply and top competitor, Meituan Dianping, is preparing for a $4 billion Hong Kong listing.





Last year Ele.me purchased Baidu Inc's food delivery service, shrinking the market to just two top players.



