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Uber Fund-Raising Points to $50 Billion Valuation

Pui-Wing Tam and

SAN FRANCISCO — Uber is fund-raising again.

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 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.

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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.CreditCredit...Jack Atley for The New York Times

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.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 2 of the New York edition with the headline: Uber Fund-Raising Points to $50 Billion Valuation. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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