Solved by verified expert:Write a two page paper with a detailed description of LYFT’s current performance in relation to its industry peers and the company’s past with outstanding analyses of the company’s statistics.
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Lyft’s Valuation Doubles to $15.1
Billion Over One Year in Battle
With Uber
Fidelity is leading a $600 million round to help Lyft keep apace of its
bigger rival
A vehicle is parked outside a Lyft Inc. driver hub in Los Angeles last year. PHOTO: PATRICK T.
FALLON/BLOOMBERG NEWS
4 COMMENTS
By
Greg Bensinger
Updated June 27, 2018 12:54 p.m. ET
Ride-hailing firm Lyft Inc. has raised new capital that doubles its valuation from last
year to $15.1 billion and gives it more firepower as bigger rival Uber Technologies
Inc. tracks toward an initial public offering.
Lyft said it raised $600 million primarily from existing investors, about six months
after raising $1.5 billion at an $11.5 billion valuation. It was valued at $7.5 billion in
April 2017.
Road to RichesUber’s valuation overshadows Lyft’s, but thesmaller rival is making gains.Valuation, in billionsSources: Dow Jones
VentureSource (Uber); Lyft
.billionUberLyft2011’12’13’14’15’16’17’18010203040506070$80
The new round is being led by asset manager Fidelity Investments, which has
poured some $800 million into Lyft, and includes hedge fund Senator Investment
Group LP and others.
The investment should help Lyft keep apace of Uber, which raised $1.25 billion in
new capital in January from SoftBank Group Corp. and has said it is planning to seek
an IPO in next year’s second half.
Lyft has weighed its own IPO, according to people familiar with the matter, though it
may not beat Uber to the punch. With Uber valued recently at $72 billion as part of a
settlement granting equity to Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, its IPO is likely to be one of the
largest in recent memory.
Both companies are battling for the future of transportation, investing billions in yet
unproven self-driving vehicles and snapping up technology and competitors that
offer rentable bicycles and scooters for shorter hops within urban centers.
Lyft gained U.S. market share last year as Uber struggled with a series of
scandals and legal setbacks. However, Lyft’s market share leveled in recent months
to around 24%, or 27% when not including Uber’s Eats food delivery service,
according to Second Measure, which tracks credit-card transactions. Lyft said in May
it held 35% of the U.S. ride-sharing market.
The two San Francisco companies are battling on several fronts. Lyft last year
moved into its first international market, Canada, and has eyed expansion into
Europe and Latin America, according to people familiar with the matter. Lyft and
Uber also are racing to develop self-driving vehicle technology that they believe
could dramatically improve the profitability of ride-sharing and reduce traffic
fatalities.
Both firms have filed applications in San Francisco for permits to operate electric
scooters on city streets and are working on partnerships with public agencies to list
transit times on their apps. Uber bought Jump, an electric bicycle company, for
around $200 million and Lyft is negotiating the purchase of Motivate, known for its
docked bikes such as the ubiquitous Citi-branded ones in New York.
This year Lyft is on a pace to record $7.7 billion in gross bookings, the amount it
takes in before paying out drivers, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Uber, by comparison, had $37 billion in gross bookings last year.
Since it was founded in 2012, Lyft has raised $5.1 billion to date, compared with
more than $16 billion for nine-year-old Uber.
Corrections & Amplifications
Prior Lyft investors including the CapitalG unit of Google parent Alphabet
Inc., KKR & Co. and Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten Inc. did not participate in the
most recent funding round. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that
they were participants. (June 27, 2018)
Write to Greg Bensinger at greg.bensinger@wsj.com
Appeared in the June 28, 2018, print edition as ‘Uber Rival Lyft Drives Up Valuation.’
Lyft Shifts Gears With New
Driverless-Car Division
San Francisco company to hire hundreds of engineers and open new
Silicon Valley office
Lyft plans to form its own autonomous-car development division. PHOTO: JOSH EDELSON/ASSOCIATED
PRESS
21 COMMENTS
By
Greg Bensinger
July 21, 2017 11:00 a.m. ET
When Uber Technologies Inc. embarked on a costly mission to develop self-driving
vehicles, ride-hailing competitor Lyft Inc. set a different course, relying on
partnerships for what many believe is the future of urban transportation.
Now Lyft is raising the ante at a vulnerable time for its rival.
The San Francisco company on Friday said it is forming its own autonomous-car
development division, to be staffed by hundreds of engineers and technicians at a
new office in the heart of Silicon Valley. Lyft said it would be developing its own
software and hardware to enable vehicles to maneuver without a human at the
wheel, while the company also works to attract new partners that can plug their
own self-driving cars into its grid.
“We want to take a proactive role into pushing the industry into a more open
environment,” Raj Kapoor, Lyft’s chief strategy officer said, at a media event. “The
only way to do that is to go deeper and to develop these technologies.”
The new division marks a shift for Lyft, which had favored partnerships with selfdriving vehicle developers including Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, NuTonomy
Inc., General Motors Co.GM -2.11% and Tata Motors Ltd.’s Jaguar Land Rover. While
Lyft has kept many details of those deals under wraps, it had signaled it would leave
the development of those cars and underlying technology to the manufacturers,
which promised to provide the vehicles to Lyft’s network in the coming years. Later
this year, NuTonomy and GM plan to test their cars on Lyft’s network.
Lyft executives insist their efforts to develop driverless cars won’t conflict with
those partnerships. “This isn’t about bringing one car or two cars or a hundred cars
onto the streets of San Francisco—this is about bringing hundreds of thousands of
cars” to Lyft’s network, Mr. Kapoor said.
But the move indicates Lyft is hedging its bets as an increasing array of tech
companies and auto makers jockey for position as the multi-trillion-dollar U.S.
automotive industry evolves. Many technologists see autonomous vehicles saving
lives by reducing human error and lowering the costs of transportation, but it isn’t
clear who will own the cars or how they will be managed and operated. Self-driving
technology is still unproven and will take years to perfect and to receive regulatory
approval.
“While these players started a long time ago, the technology has evolved since then,”
said Luc Vincent, Lyft’s vice president of engineering. “We can build on the current
technology and move faster.”
As Lyft plants its flag, Uber’s self-driving operation is reeling after the company fired
the division’s head in the wake of a lawsuit from Waymo that alleges the ride-hailing
company conspired with the executive, Anthony Levandowski, to steal design
secrets. Uber, which denies the allegations, has sought to be a leader in self-driving
cars, rolling out tests in Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Tempe, Ariz.
Lyft is opening a new office in Palo Alto, Calif., in a building once used by videocalling company Skype, and hopes that base will help it attract engineering talent,
said Director of Product Taggart Matthiesen. He said the company plans to hire
“hundreds” for the new division; Uber has nearly 700 working on self-driving cars in
Pittsburgh alone.
Lyft’s executives said getting driverless vehicles on the road is important for
lowering customers’ costs, in part because it won’t have to pay human drivers 75%
or more of a fare. The company said details like how it will share revenue with
manufacturers are yet to be determined.
“We think we can get more people using transportation as a service and less car
ownership if we move in the direction of self-driving,” Mr. Kapoor said.
Write to Greg Bensinger at greg.bensinger@wsj.com
Appeared in the July 22, 2017, print edition as ‘Lyft Jumps Into Driverless.
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