This article was last updated 10 years ago

Uber
File illustration picture showing the logo of car-sharing service app Uber on a smartphone next to the picture of an official German taxi sign in Frankfurt, September 15, 2014. A Frankfurt court earlier this month instituted a temporary injunction against Uber from offering car-sharing services across Germany. San Francisco-based Uber, which allows users to summon taxi-like services on their smartphones, offers two main services, Uber, its classic low-cost, limousine pick-up service, and Uberpop, a newer ride-sharing service, which connects private drivers to passengers – an established practice in Germany that nonetheless operates in a legal grey area of rules governing commercial transportation. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/Files (GERMANY – Tags: BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT CRIME LAW TRANSPORT)

San Francisco basedĀ ride-hailing service Uber has been heavily invested in, since its launch in 2009. The company has been raising shit loadĀ of money from multipleĀ investors including Benchmark and Google Ventures, as well as large financial firms like Goldman Sachs and TPG Growth.

Since its advent, Uber hasĀ raised more than $8 billion, which is a lot, if we say so ourselves. Uber, just 3 months ago, raised an enormous amount of capital from investors and apparently, the company isĀ at it again.

The tech firm has been reported to be planning to raiseĀ $1 billion in new venture capital from investors, according to people close to the matter. According to theĀ report, investors areĀ looking at a valuation of $60 billion to $70 billion.

This round will be the eighthĀ that the company has sought over the last five years and will makeĀ Uber the world’s most valuable private start-up by far. The round this summer raised Uber’s value to more than $50 billion which is a bit more than what Facebook was valued forĀ after its last big round of private capital fund-raising in 2011.

When asked about the matter, a Uber spokesperson declined to comment on Friday.

According to reports, the executive management at Uber hasĀ approved another round, and the company plans to get the whole talking process done in the next few weeks. PreciseĀ targets on the size and the valuations will be determined after the company begins the official conversation stage with potential investors.

Recently, most companies are opting to stay private for longer as opposed to turning public because of the way the stock market is treating initial public firms. Median wait time of companies this year to turn public has raised to 7.7 years fromĀ 5.8 years in 2011, according to data compiled by PitchBook. Uber also seems to be in the same boat.

According toĀ Travis Kalanick, Uber’s founder and chief executive, the company management has little interest in going public in the near future.

We’re like eighth graders. We’re in junior high and someone is telling us that we need to go to the prom, and it’s just a little early,

Kalanick said at The Wall Street Journal’s WSJDLive Conference in Laguna Beach, California, on Tuesday.

Let us get into high school before we start talking about these sorts of things.

The tactic could help the company raise its valuation by a lot. According to CB Insights, a venture capital database, there are more than 140Ā private companies valued at $1 billion or more, called unicorns.

Uber is one of the most valuedĀ startupsĀ in the world, but is continuously under threat,Ā facing competition by local companies in different regions. It operates inĀ more than 300 cities in 63 countries around the globe. According to the company, hundreds of thousands of driversĀ work on a contract basis for the company and millions of riders use its service each day.

The company itself has invested in many of its subdivisions likeĀ Uber Eats, a food delivery service, Uber Rush, a way for the company to deliver everyday goods on retailers’ behalf and Uber Pool, the company’s ride-sharing service, which matches multiple passengers who are traveling along the same routes to different destinations.

Uber’s competition around the globe includeĀ Didi Kuaidi, the most popular ride-hailing app in China,Ā Ola in India,Ā BlaBlaCar in Europe and Lyft in the US.


 

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