Ride-hailing services company Lyft attracted a number of new investors in its latest round of fundraising, including famed private equity firm KKR (KKR-CO-L-P), AllianceBernstein (AWF), Baillie Gifford, and Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board.
Existing investors Rakuten (RKUNF) and Janus Capital (JNS) returned to participate in the round that closed at $600 million in new capital with a $7.5 billion post-money valuation. Coins2Day previously reported the funding round was “more than $500 million.”
“Lyft is fundamentally changing the way people think about car ownership and transportation,” George Roberts, co-founder and co-CEO of KKR said in a statement. “With ridesharing increasingly in high demand, we are proud to partner with Lyft for their differentiated customer-centric culture, impressive growth strategy and exceptional management team, and to work together to change transportation for the better for both passengers and drivers.”
For more on Lyft, watch Coins2Day’s video:
Lyft worked for months to raise capital in its bid to aggressively expand in order to compete with Uber. The company sought investors, and one has to imagine, took advantage of Uber’s months-long streak of bad publicity when making its pitch. While the two companies share a similar business model, Lyft has consistently presented itself as a friendlier version of the Travis Kalanick-helmed company.
For instance, Lyft saw a more than 60% increase in passenger activations following the #deleteuber campaign.
Lyft was last valued at $5.5 billion, when it raised $1 billion in January 2016. Previous investors include Uber-rival Didi Chuxing, Andreessen Horowitz, and GM, which doubles as Lyft’s long-term business partner.