Lyft unveils its S-1 and nearly $1B in 2018 losses
The day has finally come. U.S. ridehailing giant Lyft has unveiled its S-1, the official document required by the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public.
The San Francisco-headquartered business will debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the ticker symbol “LYFT.” JPMorgan Chase & Co., Credit Suisse Group AG and Jefferies Financial Group Inc. will lead the initial public offering expected to value Lyft at upwards of $20 billion, a significant leap from its most recent private valuation of $15.1 billion.
The company hasn’t determined how many shares it will sell or a price range. The filing currently lists an offering size of $100M, though that is typically a placeholder amount.
According to the filing, Lyft recorded $2.2 billion in revenue in 2018, more than double the $1 billion recorded in 2017. Meanwhile losses have been growing considerably. The company posted a net loss of $911 million on $2.2 billion in revenue and a $688 million loss on 2017 revenue.
Lyft’s key stakeholders include Rakuten, a Japenese ecommerce giant, which boasts a 13 percent pre-IPO stake, General Motors (7.76 percent), Fidelity (7.1 percent), Andreessen Horowitz (6.25 percent) and Alphabet (5.3 percent).
Founded in 2007, Lyft has raised $5.1 billion in venture capital funding to date. The business raised an additional $600 million in Series I funding led by Fidelity in June, its last round of private investment. Other investors in Lyft include AllianceBernstein, Baillie Gifford, KKR, Janus CapitalG and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
