The
mobile car-hailing application is in early talks to raise a new round
of financing that could value the start-up at $50 billion, according to a
person familiar with the discussions, who spoke anonymously because the
process is confidential. Uber could raise around $1.5 billion, given
the amount of interest from investors in the company, the person said.
The
new capital will not be used primarily for expansion purposes, unlike
Uber’s previous financing rounds. Instead, the funding is strategic,
with an eye on partnerships, the person said.
Uber declined to comment. The fund-raising was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Uber,
based in San Francisco, has raised money relentlessly in recent years
at rapidly swelling valuations. So far, the company has raised more than
$4 billion as it moves into new markets globally, disrupting
established taxi and other transportation industries by letting people
request rides through their smartphones. The company was founded in 2009
and is led by Travis Kalanick, who is chief executive.
In January, The New York Times
interviewed Uber’s C.E.O., Travis Kalanick, about the ride-sharing
company’s business practices, including liability in accidents.
By Sean Patrick Farrell on Publish Date January 26, 2014.
Photo by Jack Atley for The New York Times.
In
December, Uber closed a $1.2 billion round of financing that valued it
at $40 billion. The company then moved to accommodate additional
investors like Baidu, the Chinese Internet giant.
That round followed one in June, when the service said that it had raised $1.2 billion at a valuation of $17 billion.
At
a $50 billion valuation, Uber would be the world’s most valuable
private start-up, topping the Chinese electronics maker Xiaomi, which
was last valued at $45 billion. It would also be worth more than
publicly traded companies like FedEx, with a market value of $48
billion, and Nissan Motor, with a capitalization of $47 billion.
The
divide between Uber and other “unicorns” — Silicon Valley’s term for
billion-dollar start-ups — would also grow. Even at its current $40
billion valuation, it was nearly triple that of other elite Silicon
Valley start-ups like the data analysis firm Palantir, according to the
research firm CB Insights. Among Silicon Valley start-ups, only Facebook
had attained a $50 billion valuation as a private company.
Uber’s
new fund-raising discussions come as many Silicon Valley start-ups have
been on a fund-raising tear. This week alone, the lending start-up
Affirm said it has raised $275 million in debt and equity at an
undisclosed valuation, while Zenefits, a software-as-a-service start-up,
said it had raised $500 million at a valuation of $4 billion. The
fund-raising has also taken place against a more compressed time period,
with Zenefits boosting its war chest in less than a year from a
previous financing round.
The
action is not only taking place in the United States. This week, drone
maker DJI, which is based in Shenzhen, China, said it raised $75 million
from venture capital firm Accel Partners.
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