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Ride-sharing app Uber appears to excel in how to be in the news for all the wrong reasons. Earlier this year, the company was accused of turning a blind eye to sexual harassment in the office. Later on, there was a viral video showing its CEO Travis Kalanick berating an Uber driver. Then, this week, it landed in more trouble when it was sued over one of its app features that tracks drivers. But despite the negative publicity, Uber continues to remain one of the highest valued privately held companies and the market continues to await its IPO.
Uber’s Financials
But first the numbers. Uber’s constant legal battles haven’t hurt its financials. According to market reports, Uber generated $6.5 billion in revenue last year with gross bookings doubling to $20 billion. Further news leaks suggest that Uber’s net revenues grew to $1.7 billion in Q4 2016. But losses continue to mount. Net losses have grown from $2 billion a year ago to $2.8 billion in 2016. But analysts believe that the losses may be beginning to narrow.
Uber remains venture funded with $11.6 billion in funding from investors including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Morgan Stanley, AITV, Baidu, Benchmark, Bennett Coleman and Co, BlackRock, CrunchFund, Cyan Banister, Data Collective, Fidelity Investments, First Round, Foundation Capital, Founder Collective, Garrett Camp, Goldman Sachs, GV, HDS Capital, Innovation Endeavors, Jeff Bezos, Kleiner Perkins, Lone Pine Capital, Lowercase Capital, Menlo Ventures, Microsoft, New Enterprise Associates, Sherpa Capital, Summit Partners, Techstars Ventures, TPG Growth, Tusk Ventures, Valiant Capital Partners, and Wellington Management. Its last round of funding was held in June 2016 at a valuation of $62.5 billion. Some believe that Uber is currently valued at $68 billion.
Earlier this year, Snap listed itself and many believed that it had paved the way for the likes of Uber to list. But Uber has still not taken actions to go public. The and PR, missing profits, along with the constant legal battles must be putting a damper on the company’s otherwise rosy outlook.
