The ride hailing platform is to raise $500m of additional capital to the $1bn it had raised from internet technology group Alphabet in October, through its Capital G investment vehicle. The news came after it was reported that Lyft would aim to enter Canada, its first international market. Unlike its largest rival Uber, which has long gone international, Lyft has so far operated on US territory only. Up until now, the company has raised an estimate $4.3bn in corporate-backed rounds, as shown on the chart provided by GCV Analytics. Aside from Alphabet, Lyft also counts corporates like its Chinese peer Didi Chuxing, e-commerce firms Alibaba and Rakuten, and carmakers General Motors and Jaguar Land Rover as backers.
Founded in 2007, Lyft operates an on-demand ride-hailing platform that is available in approximately 300 cities across the US. It has completed more than 500 million rides and competes with Uber, which is backed by Alphabet’s GV unit. It has reportedly approached investment bankers to study the possibility for going public in 2018.
This deal is only the latest in the booming ride hailing and car sharing space, which has registered a considerable growth over the past three-four years in both deal count and total capital raised, as the historical bar chart from GCV Analytics suggests. While there were only 10 corporate-backed deals in this space in 2013, estimated at $431m, the space grew in proportion manifold over the following years, reaching 54 transactions by November 2017, estimated at $15.55bn. The big battle in China between Uber and Didi Chuxing appeared to have ended last year with the acquisition of Uber China. However, the ride hailing space, which now include even areas like bike sharing, has not stopped attracting enormous investors interest to date.
