March 7, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. may have lost all of its 70 million yuan (11 million dollars) investment in Beijing-based courier firm Stars Express, after the company announced its bankruptcy on Monday.

“Our company has been disbanded, and we lost all our money, including 70 million yuan from Alibaba and 50 million yuan from me,” Stars Express founder and chief executive officer Chen Ping said in a message on Monday extensively circulated by Chinese netizens.

Stars Express gained prominence after receiving about 70 million yuan in aggregate investment from e-commerce giant Alibaba, which last year took a 30 percent stake in the company.

Overnight, the company’s headquarters in Beijing were vacated and Chen fled into hiding.

On Monday, hundreds of debtors converged at the gate of the company’s Shanghai branch office, asking for salaries, final payments and deposits.

An employee from the company’s Shanghai office told the 21st Century Business Herald staff hadn’t been paid for 2 months.

“Star Express’s cash flow has been tight during its entire rapid development period [it was founded in 2009], since most of its distributors seized a large number of payments directly,” an employee from Star Express told the 21st Century Business Herald.

Alibaba first invested in the company in 2010. Market watchers said at the time that the cloud computing-based business model launched by Stars Express matched perfectly with Alibaba's expansion strategy, which included setting up an industrial chain covering information technology, distribution channel, services, marketing, storage and logistics.

Alibaba has not publicly commented on the news, although the cash-rich company probably won’t suffer much from the loss on its investment.