As per a brand new report from the Financial Times, Uber arch-rival Lyft has managed to raise a brand new fund raising round of $500 million. The company was valued at $6.9 Billion for this particular round, a significant gain from its previous funding round valuation of $4.5 Billion from January last year. There appeared to be some confusion on this point with the Wall Street journal putting the valuation accompanying this fund raise at around $7.5 Billion.
This enhanced valuation still pegs the company’s value at around a tithe of Uber’s, which is said to have a valuation upwards of $70 Billion.
The report also said that Lyft could add another $100 million to its coffers before the round was over and done with. So basically, we could be looking at a $600 million fund raise. This comes after the company’s previous $1 Billion round, which took place in January. The round also saw substantial inputs from partner General Motors, which pitched in $500 million. The two are together partnering up in diverse areas including self-driving cars, so the investment held even greater meaning.
As far as the sudden increase in Lyft’s value is concerned (most estimates were expecting Lyft’s value to be in the neighborhood of $6 Billion around this time) is concerned, it could well have increased a tad because of the troubles being faced by Uber. The latter was mired in a series of controversies that included claims of harassment at the workplace, a #deleteuber campaign and other trouble besides.
As far as the uses the company could put this new fund to are concerned, expansion and self-driving cars spring to the top. However, we will have to await an official statement on the matter to be able to tell for certain. We will update this post with the same (and hopefully, a concrete word on the company’s valuation) as soon as an official statement is released.
