How much is Uber worth? As much as $70bn with another investment round- here’s how it compares
Uber may already be the most valuable startup in the world, but that doesn't mean it's any less interested in keeping the pedal to the metal when it comes to landing investment.
The ambitious taxi-hailing app is facing some serious threats from regulatory crackdowns in London and elsewhere as well as rivals, especially in huge markets such as China and India, but that has not put off investors.
Uber is reportedly raised another round of investment close to the $1bn (£653m) mark and that could value Uber at up to $70bn, the New York Times reports.
That's a huge jump on the $51bn it was valued at by the end of August after an already large summer of fundraising in which it became only the second venture capital-backed private company ever to surpass $50bn. The first was Facebook, around seven years into business in 2011, a year before it went public, but Uber has passed that milestone almost two years earlier.
Uber chief Travis Kalanick earlier in the week said an IPO was a "few years" away. “We’re like eighth graders, we’re in junior high and someone is telling us that we need to go to the prom, and it’s just a little early,” he told the Wall Street Journal's WSJDLive conference.
Uber has between 50 and 65 investors, based on two separate funding trackers, and total investment of between $7.8bn and $8.2bn. Investors include tech companies such as Microsoft, Google and Baidu, venture capitalists such as Menlo Ventures and Kleiner Perkins and the likes of BlackRock and Goldman Sachs.
The valuation means Uber is worth more than several publicly traded companies. It had already surpassed fellow tech darlings such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Netflix, and more established players such as Yahoo and eBay. The new round would mean it surpasses the value of one of its investors, BlackRock, and is closing in on another, Goldman Sachs. Here's how it compares.
