Uber has finally closed its latest funding round, raising almost $1 billion at a $51 billion valuation, according to sources. The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the investment.
Uber Closes $1 Billion Funding at $51 Billion Valuation While Pledging to Invest in India
Where will the additional money go?
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The ride-hailing company says it authorized the funding more than two months ago, according to a spokeswoman. “We aren’t commenting on additional speculation,” she said in an emailed statement.
That brings Uber’s total funding up to more than $5 billion, according to sources.
Where will the additional money go? Uber hasn’t said publicly, but we can look to its latest comments on India for a clue. Amit Jain, the president of Uber India, said the company would be committing $1 billion in investment to the region, so it’s likely some or all of the money recently raised will go there.
Uber India is growing at a rate of 40 percent from month to month, Jain said in a statement to Re/code. “With this investment and the strong rate of growth we are seeing, we expect to hit over one million trips per day in the next six to nine months,” he said.
Uber has raised an enormous war chest at this point, far more than any other private, venture-backed company. It needs the capital to spread internationally. China and India are its biggest priorities right now, and Uber has to fight incumbents in both of them — Didi Kuaidi in the former and Ola in the latter. To do so, it’s offering big bonuses and subsidies to drivers and discounts to riders, as well as preparing to fight long, costly legal and regulatory battles the same way it has in the United States.
Bennett Coleman & Co., an Indian media company that owns the Times of India among other publications, is one of the investors in this latest round alongside Microsoft, according to the Wall Street Journal report. Bennett Coleman & Co. didn’t return our request for comment. Microsoft declined to comment.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
