Lyft may not have been the first ride-hailing company, but it is about to the first publicly traded one. On Thursday, the company priced its shares at $72 each amid strong demand from prospective shareholders, according to two individuals familiar with Lyft’s offering.
At that price, it puts Lyft‘s value at $24.3 billion as the company prepares to start trading on the Nasdaq stock market beginning Friday. The company will trade under the ticker symbol “LYFT.”
According to the S-1 filing released earlier this month, Lyft faces intense competition from Uber. The company claims 39 percent of the U.S. market as of Q4 2018, up 17 percent over two years, according to the filing.
Here’s what Lyft reported in 2018:
- Bookings: $8.1 billion, which is an increase of 76 percent from 2017
- Revenue: $2.2 billion, which is double the revenue it saw in 2017
- Net loss: $911 million, which is wider by 32 percent from 2017
Early on, Lyft was funded by venture firms including Floodgate, K9 Ventures, Mayfield Fund, and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. The company is now one of the hottest tech start-ups that is expected to go public on Friday.
Aside from Lyft, other companies expected to go public in 2019 include Uber, Pinterest, Zoom and Slack. It’s expected that Uber will publicly release its S-1 filing next month. J.P. Morgan, Credit Suisse and Jefferies are the lead underwriters for Lyft’s offering.
