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NEA, Qatar Investment Authority participate in Uber’s $1.2B funding round

By Sainul K Abudheen

  • 09 Dec 2014
NEA, Qatar Investment Authority participate in Uber’s $1.2B funding round

US-based New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Middle East sovereign wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority, participated in online cab booking company Uber’s $1.2 billion investment round announced early this month, says a The Wall Street Journal report, quoting unnamed sources.

The round also saw participations from US-based Valiant Capital Partners and Lone Pine Capital.

Earlier, Uber announced in an official blog post that it had secured $1.2 billion in fresh funding from a group of unnamed investors.

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Separate  media reports said the company has been valued at $40 billion with the fresh funding round. Uber plans to use the fresh capital for growth, especially in the Asia-Pacific region.

Launched in 2009, San Francisco-headquartered Uber is one of the heavily-funded online car hire services in the world. The company enables users to request a ride any time using its iOS and Android apps, as well as from its mobile site m.uber.com. Uber is simply a booking platform, and the cars are not operated by the company.

In July this year, Uber had closed $1.2 billion in funding from institutional investors, mutual funds as well as PE and VC investors at $17 billion pre-money valuation. According to a The Wall Street Journal report then, the investors who participated in that round included Fidelity Investments, Wellington Management, BlackRock Inc, Summit Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Google Ventures and Menlo Ventures.

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Previously, Uber had raised over $361.2 million in funding led by Google Ventures, which put in $258 million.

The company started its operations in India in October last year and is already present in 11 cities — Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Jaipur, New Delhi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai. It recently entered Kochi.

Recently, Uber rolled out its ultra cheap variant UberGo in India that offers its customers chauffeur-driven hatchbacks (like Tata Indica Vista, Etios Liva and Maruti Suzuki Swift) for a price that it claims is lower than an auto-rickshaw. The company is also running a vehicle financing programme in partnership with financial services firms and auto manufacturers.

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Recently, the Delhi government banned Uber following rape allegations against one of its drivers in the city.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)

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