July was a record month for Lyft, which performed 13.9 million rides, according to a letter the company sends its investors on a monthly basis that Recode obtained.
Lyft hit a record of 14 million rides last month with run-rate revenue of as much as $500 million
11.4 million of those rides were not subsidized.
Mike Coppola / Getty
That’s 1.5 million more rides, or 12 percent more, than the company performed in June 2016 and amounts to 167 million rides on an annual run-rate basis, according to the document.
The company also hit more than $2 billion in what it calls net ride value for the first time in its history, on a run-rate basis. Net ride value — not to be confused with Lyft’s revenue — is the amount passengers pay without accounting for tips and tolls. Lyft takes anywhere from 20 to 25 percent of the fare, which means the company’s run-rate revenue for the year is between $400 million and $500 million.
The company also saw a 14 percent increase month over month in trips that were not subsidized or otherwise paid for using coupons or credits. In July, 11.4 million of the 14 million rides the company performed in total were not subsidized, or 81 percent.
Lyft also hit another milestone: It saw more than three million monthly active passengers, up from two million in February 2016. In that same month, the company added 825,000 new passengers and 50,000 new drivers to the platform.
“Lyft attracted the largest number of new passengers and drivers in a single month, as well as the highest number of active passengers and drivers since inception,” the document reads.
The leaked document comes at a time when the company is under pressure to sell right after Uber sold its China operations to homegrown competitor Didi. The two companies have essentially agreed to operate a monopoly in China after years of battling for customers and riders through price enticements that made it hard to turn profit.
Market dominance is more important than ever as ride-hailing startups look to turn a profit. Uber is likely to seek an IPO next year, and Lyft will have to find a buyer to help it better compete.
As for its financials, while the letter did not go into specific figures, Lyft executives wrote that the company’s 2015 GAAP revenue increased 6.3x year over year. Previously leaked investor presentations reported by Bloomberg show that the company expected to report $796 million in revenue in 2015 for a 512 percent increase, which matches up with the latest document. (The company defines GAAP revenue to include money that will be paid out to drivers, according to the Bloomberg report.)
“During the first six months of 2016, Lyft exceeded the Company’s full year 2015 operating results for ride volume, Net Ride Value and GAAP revenue,” the document reads. “The Company remained under the Board approved budget during the first six months of 2016.”
While the company saw significant growth — a month-to-month increase of 1.5 million rides is nothing to sneeze at — the figures still position Lyft far behind its competitor, Uber.
Lyft now performs at least 250,000 rides per month in 17 markets. That was only the case in three markets the year prior. Uber, on the other hand, hit its 100 millionth ride just in New York City on Monday evening. Now that the company has unloaded its China business, Uber is freed up to refocus on some of its other priorities: India, its self-driving efforts, UberPool and the U.S.
The company has hired Qatalyst Partners to explore potential acquisition offers, and it is under added pressure to show that its growth rate justifies its spending. But one source told The Wall Street Journal that the company is burning $50 million a month and another said that the company posted an operating loss of $360 million in 2015.
Though a chart included in the document indicates there was a dropoff in the number of rides performed between April and July, last month’s growth bodes well for the company. Now it’s up to Lyft to, at the very least, maintain that growth in rides while continuing to increase the number of unsubsidized rides the company performs.
A Lyft spokesperson said they were not providing comment at this time.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
