Alternative taxi service Uber has raised a funding round worth hundreds of millions of dollars from TPG, Benchmark, and reportedly Google Ventures.
A Delaware filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission shows Uber has sold off some of its C-1 and C-2 stocks to those major Silicon Valley investors and may now be valued around $3.5 billion. The company had been in hot water with U.S. regulators who are concerned about safety practices and certifications for Uber’s cars, but investors don’t seem phased. The company is active in a number of countries across the world, nations where it isn’t facing the same opposition.
Uber is available in 35 markets.
The filing notes that Uber sold 775,092 shares of its C-2 stock to TPG for $114.03 a share. Furthermore, the company sold 105,235 C-1 shares at $142.54 a share to Benchmark, an existing investor. Google Ventures reportedly went in on about 1.8 million C-1 shares totaling around $250 million, according to AllThingsD‘s sources. In total, that’s around a $350 million round of funding.
June 5th: The AI Audit in NYC
Join us next week in NYC to engage with top executive leaders, delving into strategies for auditing AI models to ensure fairness, optimal performance, and ethical compliance across diverse organizations. Secure your attendance for this exclusive invite-only event.
Talk about the Uber round first showed up in early July. Uber confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that it was speaking with potential investors, but would not give away much information about the round itself.
In that same month, cabbies took to San Francisco’s City Hall to complain about Uber and its competitors, calling Uber drivers “road bandits.” The California Public Utilities Commission proposed a new category of transportation in order to accomodate these companies into existing law called “Transportation Network Companies.” The new category means that these kinds of companies would need to be licensed under the CPUC and require criminal background checks for drivers.
More recently, Washington, D.C., moved to block the types of cars Uber uses, saying hybrid vehicles like the Prius cannot be considered “sedans.”
