Uber has been consistently ranked as one of the world’s most valuable startups for a few years now, but the company’s recent $1 billion round of funding may have turned it into THE most valuable startup in the world. Now valued at almost $51 billion thanks to funding from the likes of Bennett Coleman and Microsoft, Uber has surpassed Xiaomi to become the most valuable startup in the world at the moment.
Uber Technologies Inc. has closed a new round of funding valuing the five-year-old ride-hailing company at close to $51 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, equaling Facebook Inc.’s record for a private venture-backed startup. Uber raised close to $1 billion in the round, one of the people said, bringing its total funding to more than $5 billion. The San Francisco company initially had briefed investors on a plan to raise between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in the round, The Wall Street Journal reported in May. Investors in the latest round include Microsoft Corp. and the investment arm of Indian media conglomerate Bennett Coleman & Co., another person familiar with the matter said, as Uber seeks allies to help bolster its technology and expand in large markets outside the U.S. An Uber spokeswoman said the company had filed a document in Delaware in May to authorize the latest funding round. “We aren’t commenting on additional speculation,” the spokeswoman said.
