Lyft To Reach $1 Bln Annual Revenue Mark?

Lyft, a privately held American transportation network company and Uber Technologies’ biggest rival in the U.S., hopes to reach the $1 billion mark in gross annual revenue, the company's co-founder John Zimmer told Reuters.

The $1 billion figure was based on its gross bookings in October, when it made around $83 million off of 7 million rides, excluding Halloween.

"It demonstrates what a large business opportunity this is," said Zimmer. "The market that we are playing in is ... a $2.25 trillion transportation industry."

The San Francisco-based company has over 40 percent market share in San Francisco and in Austin, Texas. It has raised $1 billion at a $2.5 billion valuation, and Zimmer added it still has "the far, far majority of that money in the bank," without revealing any details.

The company partnered with the world's largest one-stop mobile transportation platform, Didi Kuaidi in September. As part of the alliance, Didi has invested $100 million in Lyft, in a financing round led by Rakuten earlier this year that also included Carl Icahn, Alibaba and Tencent. 

According to the New York Times, the company is seeking approximately $500 million at a valuation of about $4 billion, significantly up from current valuation of about $2.5 billion. However, the figures may change as fund-raising talks continue, people familiar with the matter told the publication house.