Uber, the US-based operator of a ride sharing service, secured $1.2bn in series D financing round on Friday, raised at a $17bn pre-money valuation.
Reports in May stated that Uber was raising a new funding round that valued it at $10bn, less than a year after it raised $258m from Google Ventures, TPG and Benchmark at a $3.5bn valuation. However, the end result has exceeded expectations considerably.
The news was broken in a blog post by CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick, who said Uber expects the round to be boosted to $1.4bn after additional investment from strategic investors.
Kalanick did not disclose the identity of the investors but said of the round: “We are thrilled to have top tier institutional investors, mutual funds, private equity and venture capital partners joining us.”
The CEO added that the fundraise had come four years to the week that Uber first began operations in its home city of San Francisco.
Uber, which connects independent drivers with passengers through its mobile app, now operates in 128 cities across 37 countries. It has raised more than $1.5bn in equity since its 2009 seed round from investors including Menlo Ventures, CrunchFund, Goldman Sachs, Lowercase Capital, First Round Capital, Innovation Endeavors and several private investors.