Lyft Inc on Friday filed documents for its stock offering, racing ahead of ride-sharing rival Uber Technologies Inc for a Wall Street listing that sets the stage for a series of big venture-backed tech firms to hit public markets.
The initial public offering (IPO) filing offered the first glimpse of Lyft’s finances, which showed that the San Francisco firm lost US$911 million on US$2.2 billion in revenue last year.
The documents show revenue grew sharply from US$343 million in 2016, but losses widened as well.
Lyft’s private valuation has been estimated at US$15 billion, considerably smaller than Uber, but making it one of the largest start-ups worth more than US$1 billion, popularly known as “unicorns.”
It is to trade on the NASDAQ under the symbol LYFT and, according to some reports, would seek a valuation of more than US$20 billion.
“We are laser-focused on revolutionizing transportation and continue to lead the market in innovation,” Lyft said in its filing, setting a preliminary target of raising US$100 million, a “placeholder” figure likely to be revised higher.
The company has discussed the possibility of expanding globally, but so far has operated only in the US and Canada.
The filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission said only that Lyft “may continue” to expand its international operations, without offering specifics.
Lyft’s plans are “multimodal,” and involve using shared bikes and scooters for shorter rides, while enabling users to see transit options on its mobile application, the company said.
The date and pricing of the offering were not announced.
The document said Lyft had completed more than 1 billion rides since its inception in 2012 and had bookings last year of US$8.1 billion.
It has a 39 percent share of the US rideshare market, according to a survey cited in the filing.
Lyft’s mission, according to the statement, revolves around reducing the number of cars on roads and includes a path toward self-driving vehicles.
“We believe that cities should be built for people, not cars,” the company said.
“Mass car ownership strains our cities and reduces the very freedom that cars once provided,” it said.
Lyft said it is also investing in autonomous technology and hopes to roll out more self-driving vehicles, calling this “a critical part of the future of transportation.”
“We were the first to launch a publicly available commercial autonomous offering in the United States,” the company said.
It would seek to maintain its policy that drivers work as independent contractors, Lyft said, adding that any legal challenge to this could have “adverse” consequences.
For the IPO, Lyft said some shares would be reserved for drivers who have completed at least 10,000 trips using the platform.
The company would offer a bonus of US$1,000 to US$10,000 to eligible drivers by March 19 that may be used to buy shares at the offering price, although they could opt to pocket the cash.
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