After raising $600 million in its latest funding round, Lyft is now worth $15.1 billion. The ride-hailing company’s valuation has more than doubled in the past 14 months, noted TechCrunch. But Lyft still has a long way to go before it catches up to rival Uber.
Lyft’s share of the U.S. ride-hailing market has grown significantly over the past year, due to both an aggressive expansion push and Uber’s scandal-ridden 2017. Over the past 18 months, Lyft has expanded into more U.S. cities as well as Canada. It now controls 35 percent of the U.S. ride-hailing market, up from 22 percent in January 2017, according to TechCrunch.
Lyft has sought more investor money in order to fund this expansion. Including the $600 million raised in its latest funding round, the company has raised $2.9 billion in primary capital since April 2017, TechCrunch reported. Jaguar Land Rover and Google parent Alphabet are among the companies to invest in Lyft recently. Lyft has also cultivated a partnership with Aptiv for autonomous-driving technology.
But even with its many missteps, Uber remains a much larger player in ride hailing. It secured investment from the powerful Japanese firm SoftBank in December 2017. At the time of that deal, Uber’s valuation was pegged at $48 billion. That was considered to be a low-ball figure reflecting the damage Uber’s various scandals had done to its reputation. Uber’s valuation was estimated at $68 billion in 2016.
Uber also retains a much bigger global reach than Lyft. While Uber has ceded operations in China, Russia, and Southeast Asia to Didi Chuxing, Yandex, and Grab, it still has a presence in many markets where Lyft doesn’t operate, including Europe and South America. Lyft only began operating outside the United States last year, when it launched in Toronto. But Lyft’s steady growth shows that the company is taking the fight to Uber on its home turf.
Source: Read Full Article