It was first rumored last month that Google’s parent company was thinking about investing in ride-hailing platform Lyft. The rumors have turned out to be true. CapitalG, Alphabet’s growth investment fund, is leading a $1 billion investment round in Lyft. This latest financing round puts Lyft’s post-money valuation at $11 billion. Post-money valuation is a company’s value after financing from outside sources is added to its balance sheet.
This isn’t surprising at all. Google starting developing its self-driving car technology pretty early on. The autonomous driving efforts are now concentrated under Waymo, a division that’s now a part of Alphabet.
Alphabet is clearly interested in self-driving cars. Waymo previously confirmed that it’s going to work on a self-driving car project with Lyft. The $1 billion injection goes to show that the two companies are committed to taking their relationship forward.
It’s not like Google hasn’t invested in Uber as well. The company poured nearly $250 million in Uber back in 2013. The two companies though about collaborating on self-driving car technology back then. Things between Google and Uber have taken a turn for the worse, though.
Waymo and Uber are involved in a legal dispute as Waymo alleges that Uber is using its trade secrets for its self-driving car sensors.
Lyft has achieved new milestones this year. The company completed its 500 millionth ride this year and it’s service is now available to 95 percent of the U.S. population. The figure was at 54 percent at the start of this year.
Filed in . Read more about Lyft and Self-Driving Cars. Source: blog.lyft