U.S. Ride Hailing Company Lyft Plans To Raise $1 Bln

Lyft, a privately held American transportation network company and Uber Technologies’ biggest rival, plans to raise $1 billion in new funds, according to a Delaware state filing, Bloomberg reported.

Details regarding how much had been raised, investors participating in the round, etc. are unclear at the moment. The latest round, however, incorporates some downside protection for new investors, such as the provision of extra shares should Lyft go public at a lower valuation.

According to a Bloomberg report published last month, Lyft had been in talks to raise $500 million, as revealed by the fundraising documents prepared by Credit Suisse Group AG.

TechCrunch reports that the latest fundraising round authorized about 37 million shares at $26.79, while the last round was authorized at $19.45 per share. VC Experts’ Justin Byers told TechCrunch that the company would have a post-money valuation of $4.8 billion if the entire round is completed.

Recently, Lyft teamed up with three major rideshare services – Didi Kuaidi, GrabTaxi and Ola – to provide international travelers seamless access to local on-demand rides by using the same application they use at home.

Lyft partnered with Didi Kuaidi in September and as part of the alliance, Didi has invested $100 million in Lyft, in a financing round led by Rakuten earlier this year that also included Carl Icahn, Alibaba and Tencent.