Uber could become a public company as soon as next year or 2016, according to a leaked document published in a report from Reuters.
The news agency gained access to a presentation that Uber is showing to potential investors in China as part of a new funding round for its international business. (UberChina, the entity Uber created in the country, is separately reportedly seeking to raise a billion dollars to battle China-based rival Didi Kuaidi, which recently closed a $2 billion financing round itself.) The document broke out information for Uber China and Uber Inc., and forecasted that the latter — which is present in over 150 countries worldwide — will go public within 18-24 months.
Despite rampant speculation about Uber’s eventual IPO, the company and CEO Travis Kalanick have never commented on it, which makes this nugget particularly interesting.
The presentation also provided a look at very recent financial information for the ride-sharing company. Reuters reports that the leaked doc claimed Uber bookings were worth $2.91 billion in 2014, up from $687.8 million in 2013.
This year, the firm expects to clock $10.84 billion in total income which — calculating the 20 percent commission that it takes — should bring in around $2 billion in revenue for the year. Its projection for next year comes in at $26.12 billion, which could generate over $5 billion in take-home money.
Profit is, of course, subject to Uber’s own spending, which the document Reuters got its hands on didn’t detail. While this new document is relatively fresh — it is said to include data from as recently as June 2015 — older data leaked to Bloomberg and Gawker earlier this summer shows that the company has, historically at least, spent a lot more than it makes as it continues to scale its business worldwide.
We contacted Uber for comment on this new data and, while we don’t expect the company to say anything of note in response, we’ll update this story as and when we get a reply.
Update 2: And, indeed, an Uber spokesperson tells TechCrunch that the company “doesn’t comment on rumor or speculation”.
Update 1: Story updated to correct that the leaked presentation was for Uber Inc. not UberChina. Title updated to correct the timeline within the leaked document.
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