US-based ride hailing service Lyft has confidentially filed for an initial public offering that would represent an exit for a range of corporate investors, it confirmed yesterday.
The company intends to float in the first half of 2019, undisclosed sources told Reuters, though they did not disclose any details concerning a possible size for the IPO, which will be executed once the Securities and Exchange Commission has reviewed the filing.
Financial services firms JPMorgan Chase, Credit Suisse and Jeffries are among the underwriters for the offering, according to Reuters.
Lyft operates an on-demand ride service that is present in all 50 US states as well as the District of Columbia and nine cities across the Canadian province of Ontario. It provided more than 375 million rides for a total of more than 23 million unique passengers in 2017.
The company has raised $4.4bn in equity funding and was valued at $15.1bn following a $600m round in June this year that was led by investment and financial services group Fidelity Management and Research and backed by hedge fund Senator Investment Group.
The June round came three months after auto components producer Magna International provided $200m of funding at a reported $11.7bn valuation.
CapitalG, internet and technology group Alphabet’s growth equity unit, led a $1.5bn round for the company in December 2017 that included Fidelity, e-commerce firm Rakuten, KKR, Baillie Gifford, AllianceBernstein, Janus Henderson and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
Rakuten, KKR, Baillie Gifford, AllianceBernstein and Janus Henderson had previously invested $600m in Lyft in April 2017, two months before InMotion Ventures, a subsidiary of automotive manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover, added $25m.
Lyft had already raised $1bn in an early 2016 series F round led by carmaker General Motors (GM) and backed by e-commerce group Alibaba, Chinese on-demand ride service Didi Chuxing, Janus Capital and the Saudi Arabian state-backed Kingdom Holding.
Alibaba had previously led a $680m series E round for Lyft in 2015, investing alongside Rakuten, Didi Chuxing, internet group Tencent and conglomerate Icahn Enterprises.
The company had received $250m in series D funding from Alibaba, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund, Coatue Management, Third Point Ventures and Mayfield Fund the year before.
The proposed offering will likely be followed by an even larger IPO by Lyft’s larger rival, Uber, which has reportedly already hired banks to oversee a flotation.
