Lyft managed to raise $1 billion through one shot thanks to the support it enjoys from Google’s parent company, Alphabet. The tech behemoth personally took care of the investment round in a bid to reinforce collaboration and gain more access to the ride-hailing industry. In its turn, Lyft will use the new budget to improve services and catch up with main rival, Uber.
Lyft Has a Lot to Gain Thanks to Current Animosity Between Uber and Alphabet
Lyft will use the new $1 billion funds to double down on the U.S. market. The ride-hailing company has enjoyed clean, straight ascending on the market as of lately. However, Lyft is still way behind Uber, despite its continuous internal and PR issues.
The investment round took place under the direct supervision of Alphabet’s growth investment department, CapitalG. Moreover, the startup announced that a partner at CapitalG, David Lawee, is going to join their board permanently.
The event that brought Lyft a total of $1 billion underlines once more Alphabet’s divergence from Uber. This animosity fueled by a legal battle between Uber and Waymo can only be of great benefit to Lyft. The great interest Alphabet has in this small ride-hailing startup indicates that the Waymo autonomous vehicle technology might get better integrated into Lyft’s transportation system.
The Latest Investment Round Elevated Lyft’s Worth to $11 Billion
Nonetheless, there is still a large abyss that separates Lyft and Uber. The latest investment found elevated startup’s worth to a total of $11 billion. By comparison, Uber values $70 billion on paper.
However, investors can’t deny the different paths these two rivals took over the last year. While Uber was damaging its PR image and internal culture, Lyft was busy building a powerful brand. The latter started paying attention to its community of clients and even donated to the American Civil Liberties Union. Lyft voiced out certain political views that were in alignment with its users.
Nonetheless, Uber shows signs of regeneration. The company found a new leader in the person of Dara Khosrowshahi. He is now negotiating a major investment coming from SoftBank Group Corp. Therefore, it will be interesting to observe how the landscape within the growing ride-hailing market will evolve from now on.
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