Car-hailing service Lyft has scored $1 billion in financing — which it says brings its post-money valuation to $11 billion — led by Alphabet’s CapitalG growth investment fund.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, also is an investor in Uber, Lyft’s chief rival. Uber has been in turmoil over a series of scandals, including a wave of sexual-harassment complaints, that led to the ouster of CEO Travis Kalanick.
With the funding, Lyft has raised $3.6 billion to date. Other investors include GM, Icahn Enterprises, Rakuten, UTA Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund and Mayfield Fund. CapitalG partner David Lawee is joining Lyft’s board with the latest round; Lyft didn’t identify other investors that participated in the round.
San Francisco-based Lyft said in early October it completed its 500 millionth ride. Founded in 2007, the service is now available in 95% of the U.S., up from 54% at the beginning of the year.
“While we’ve made progress towards our vision, we’re most excited about what lies ahead,” Lyft said in a blog post announcing the funding. “The fact remains that less than 0.5% of miles traveled in the U.S. happen on rideshare networks. This creates a huge opportunity to best serve our cities’ economic, environmental, and social futures.”
In May, Alphabet’s Waymo self-driving car division inked a joint development agreement with Lyft — while Waymo has filed a lawsuit against Uber seeking billions in damages, alleging Uber stole trade secrets. This summer, David Drummond, Alphabet’s SVP of corporate development, resigned from Uber’s board over conflict-of-interest concerns between the companies’ autonomous-vehicle projects.
