Uber Drives Past $50B Value Mark

Uber has raised $1 billion in its latest round of funding, a sum that values the company at roughly $51 billion, which brings the ride-summoning tech company equal to Facebook’s record for a startup, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday (July 31).

The five-year-old company now has raised more than $5 billion since inception. Major investors in this latest round count tech titans such as Microsoft and the investment unit of Bennett Coleman, an Indian media company, which dovetails with Uber’s plan to expand operations outside the United States.

Based in California, Uber had been looking to raise between $1.5 billion to $2 billion, as WSJ reported in May. A spokeswoman told WSJ more recently that the company had filed a document in Delaware to commence the latest funding round.

The latest implied valuation of the tech startup reaches the $50 billion “high-water mark,” as the financial publication termed it, set by Facebook in 2011. And in addition, Uber now ranks above Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. as the world’s most highly valued private startup. As noted by WSJ Friday, Xiaomi reached a $46 billion valuation at the end of last year.

In reference to the company’s linking up with Bennett Coleman, WSJ reported that the company has been looking to set up relationships with media conglomerates in regions where the strategy is to build “grassroots support” with its battles with traditional taxi operators.

Times Internet, which WSJ noted on Friday runs investments and also oversees websites for the aforementioned Bennett Coleman, contributed to the latest investment round after previously taking a stake in Uber earlier in 2015. Uber also said during the last week of July that it would look to invest $1 billion in India over the next nine months.

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