Lyft Gets $500 Million in New Funding as Its Rival Uber Wobbles -<br />By MIKE ISAACAPRIL 6, 2017<br />SAN FRANCISCO — For years, Lyft has trailed its larger rival Uber in the battle to conquer the ride-hailing market.<br />The smaller ride-hailing company has secured up to $500 million in a new round of funding<br />that values Lyft at $6.9 billion before the addition of new capital, according to two people briefed on the discussions, who asked to remain anonymous because the details were confidential.<br />In an interview with Time last month, Lyft’s president, John Zimmer, said of Uber’s problems: “We’re woke.” He added<br />that Lyft, in contrast to Uber, was “a better boyfriend.”<br />Uber has rejected assertions that its business has been materially affected by its troubles.<br />The company has said its growth over the first 10 weeks of 2017 was larger than the same period in 2016,<br />and trips in less mature regions like Latin America were up 600 percent from a year earlier.<br />The financing gave Lyft a $2.4 billion increase in value since the company last raised money in 2016.<br />Lyft’s previous investors included the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba.
