The complications in Alphabet’s relationship with start-up behemoth Uber continues. On Thursday, October 19, both Lyft and CapitalG, which is an investment arm of Google-parent Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:$GOOGL), announced that CapitalG will be leading a $1 billion funding round for Lyft.
It’s fair to say that Lyft has been steadily growing its cash cushion to take on Uber. In fact, Thursday’s funding follows a $600 million funding round in April.
This should not come as a surprise as Alphabet’s self-driving unit, Waymo, confirmed earlier this year that it would be entering into a partnership with Lyft in order to create a self-driving car project. Lyft, which is traded privately, noted in a statement that its service is now available to 95% of the United States population. This is significant as it is up from 54% at the beginning of 2017.
The funding round comes as the relationship between Uber and Google continues to sour. Many speculate the two companies have a strained relationship due to the lawsuit between Waymo and Uber. Alphabet’s Waymo claims that Uber is using one of Waymo’s trade secrets for its autonomous vehicle sensors.
As of right now, Lyft is worth $11 billion, but this is still much smaller than the almost $70 million billion market leader Uber.
Featured Image: twitter
