Uber Shareholder Thinks the Company Is Worth $95 Billion

What is the world’s biggest ride-hailing company really worth?

byStephen Edelstein|
Uber Shareholder Thinks the Company Is Worth $95 Billion
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Despite its many recent controversies, Uber is still viewed as a valuable company with a bright future. Japan's SoftBank has committed to invest in Uber and may value the company at anywhere from $50 billion to $70 billion, but a current Uber investor believes the ride-sharing giant could be worth more.

The anonymous investor told Axios that Uber should be valued at $95 billion. That's based in large part on comparisons to the estimated value of Uber's rivals and the revenue they've raked in this year.

Uber competitor Lyft's gross revenue for the second quarter of 2017 was reported at around $1 billion, and a new Google-led funding round values the company at around $10 billion. Didi Chuxing, Uber's onetime Chinese rival, had Q2 gross revenue of $5.75 billion; in May, SoftBank estimated the company's value at $45 billion.

Uber's gross revenue for Q2 2017 was $8.7 billion. Applying the same ratio of valuation to gross revenue as Lyft and Didi Chuxing, Uber should be valued at $68 billion to $87 billion, according to the anonymous investor. Uber also owns a 17-percent stake in Didi, worth an estimated $8.5 billion. That brings the total valuation for Uber to $76.5 billion to $95.5 billion, depending on whether the Didi or Lyft ratio is used.

This could just be optimism on the part of an investor, but it's worth noting that SoftBank has used some non-financial factors—such as Uber's recent management infighting and various scandals—to argue for a lower valuation. It's also worth noting that current Uber investor Benchmark has publicly said the company could be worth more than $100 billion in a few years.

Ride-sharing is expected to grow in popularity in the coming decades, especially with the rise of self-driving cars. As a major player in the business, Uber seems well-positioned to take advantage of that trend. But the company has made some missteps, and still faces five federal criminal probes, a lawsuit from Waymo over self-driving car tech, and questions related to how it treats its drivers. Just like the industries it hopes to disrupt, Uber's future is uncertain.

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