Uber, the on-demand transportation company that has amassed around $10 billion in funding to date, is raising once more. This time, it is looking to to $2.1 billion, in a Series G round that could value the company has high as $64.6 billion if all the shares are issued, TechCrunch has confirmed with a source close to the company.
The fresh funding, reported first by Bloomberg, is spelled out in documents that Uber filed in Delaware earlier today. A copy of Uber’s latest filing is embedded below, supplied by private market data provider VC Experts. It notes that there are 43,057,291 shares of preferred Series G stock being issued at $48.772228/share. VC Experts estimates that the post-money valuation, if all shares are issued, could be between $62 billion or as high as $68 billion.
TechCrunch understands from a source close to the company that Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price are a part of the current round, and that there may be more strategic investors on the way.
For all the talk of tech bubbles bursting or at approaching a soft landing, the money is still flowing fast. Tiger Global just yesterday closed a new $2.5 billion fund, which may be the source of its stake in this latest round in Uber.
Tiger Global is an interesting partner for Uber: last year, several hedge funds affiliated with Tiger Management invested in Uber in a $1.2 billion round, although Tiger Global was not involved. Tiger Global, up to now, has been a strong investor in several Uber rivals in other markets, including Ola, Didi and GrabTaxi.
Uber’s focus on strategic investors may take some of the focus away from whatever conflict of interest may exist in investing in big rivals. Its past strategic partners have included Spotify, Times Internet of India and Baidu, all bringing interesting angles to how the company has grown over time.
The Times Internet deal involves the media group providing marketing and other services to Uber specifically in India, where it is working hard to compete against local player Ola, and it was accompanied by a small investment of an undisclosed amount, the companies said when the deal was announced in March of this year.
Similarly, in September it emerged that Baidu has also invested in Uber in China as part of a $1.2 billion round. China’s search giant provides marketing and distribution as well as mapping services to Uber in the country. Microsoft also made a strategic investment of about $100 million in Uber in its most recent round.
Potential strategic investors could figure as part of Uber’s strategy for how it plans to grow its business.
Considering that Uber is increasingly moving into transporting more than just people, as well as providing more enhanced services to attract drivers to its platform, that could mean other delivery companies looking for a boost in their last-mile services; automotive or or vehicle businesses that might want to form leasing partnerships for drivers or potentially provide other services, such as mapping; or even businesses that have goods that need to be moved from A to B but lack efficient delivery.
The news of Uber’s fundraising comes on the same day that several of its rivals — Lyft, Didi Kuaidi, Ola and GrabTaxi — have clubbed together in a new global ridesharing network, where they will share technology and link together their apps but remain separate companies focusing on their local markets as they look for better ways to compete as the San Francisco juggernaut takes its transportation business up another gear.