And folks, after a brief halt of sorts, Uber is back into the money raising business. The San Francisco based taxi-aggregator has reportedly raised a sum of $200 million from Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s investment company LetterOne.
The announcement was made early today without revealing much details into the investment. Therefore it is unclear whether LetterOne’s investment helped acquired a portion of shares in Uber Technologies.
We believe that Uber’s highly talented management team possesses the necessary vision and skills to build the company into one of the world’s preeminent technology businesses.
said Fridman.
Fridman’s $200 million investment follows behind his Russian counterpart Alisher Usmanov’s undisclosed investment into Uber last year. Fridman stating in a press release added that Uber is managed by efficient employees, who can drive the company into becoming a major tech company in the world.
LetterOne was founded by Fridman in 2013 and is headquartered in Luxembourg. Over the years it has invested in various companies and had a net asset of $25 billion back in 2014. The company has plans of investing further into prospective tech start-ups from across the globe.
It has set aside a sum of $3 billion to fulfill this endeavor for the next couple of years. LetterOne made headlines when former Standard Chartered PLC chief executive Mervyn Davies was given the position of deputy chairman in 2015. Following this announcement former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt has joined the company as one of its board members.
The latest investment from LetterOne takes Uber’s overall valuation at $51 billion. Most prominent investors of Uber include Microsoft Corp. and TPG, a equity firm based in US.
With this investment Uber looks set to propel its global operations especially in countries where it has to overcome stiff competition from regional players. In India, Ola is Uber’s main competitor where as in China, Uber has found it difficult to out-compete Didi Kuaidi
Every day millions of people rely on Uber to get from A to B. Hundreds of thousands of drivers use our app to make money. Our goal is simple: reliable and affordable transportation everywhere, for everyone, at the push of a button. L1’s knowledge of emerging markets will be crucial in helping us make cities more accessible, opening up more possibilities for riders and more opportunities for drivers,
stated Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber.
Uber is gulping down continuous flow of capital as investments flow from across the globe. Such is the business model, that almost every major country Uber operates in, it has a strategic investor of sorts, with massive money poured into the company. At the end of last year, Uber had reportedly set itself a target of $2.1 billion to be raised through investments. LetterOne’s investment might be a starter for a prospective year of investments for Uber.
