Ride-hailing app Lyft raises $530m in funding, including $300m backing from Rakuten
Ride-hailing app Lyft, the biggest competitor to Uber in the US, has raised $530m in venture capital, valuing the startup at $2.5bn.
Much of the investment came from Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten, which contributed more than $300m, the New York Times reports.
“With this new investment, we are closer than ever before to realizing our vision of reconnecting people and communities through better transportation,” said John Zimmer, Lyft's co-founder and president.
Lyft is not the only US startup to have received investment from Asia this week. On Thursday it was revealed that Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is ploughing $200m into messaging service Snapchat.