Ride-hailing service Lyft has raised $1 billion in its
most recent equity-funding round, including $500 million from General Motors.
San Francisco-based Lyft said GM would help develop what
it called an “Autonomous On-Demand Network” of self-driving vehicles for hire
as well as a “series of national rental hubs” that make cars available to rent
for as short as an hour at a time.
Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal's Kingdom Holding Co.,
whose investments include stakes in luxury hotel companies Four Seasons and
Fairmont Raffles, invested $100 million in Lyft as part of the most recent
funding round. All told, Lyft has raised more than $2 billion in equity since
2013.
Lyft was founded in 2012 and operates in some 190 cities.
Lyft made its announcement four days after smaller competitor
Sidecar shut down operations. Meanwhile, the leader in the space, Uber, is
looking to raise another $2.1 billion, Bloomberg News reported last month,
citing people familiar with the process. That funding round would value Uber at
$62.5 million.
A late-2014 funding round of $1.2 billion valued Uber company
at more than $40 billion.