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Thursday 8 December 2011

Uber Gets $32M From Menlo Ventures, Jeff Bezos And Goldman Sachs


Screen Shot 2011-12-07 at 11.09.37 AM
Just 18 months into operations, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick announced on stage at Le Web that the car service company has closed $32 million in Series B funding lead by Shervin Pishevar’sMenlo Ventures, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos andGoldman Sachs. Following on will be existing investors Benchmark Capital and a who’s who of angel investors. With regards to this round’s valuation amount, Kalanick told me, “We sold very valuable shares.”
The funding total can extend up to $39 million through a second tranche, Kalanick said, but Uber has only closed $32 million of that number. Three years ago Kalanick and co-founder Garrett Campcame up with the idea for Uber in Paris, so it is fitting that he would announce the new funding in the French capital, “Uber is in part a French company,” he said onstage.
“I’m thrilled to announce today that Menlo Ventures is leading a $39m Series B investment in Uber, an on-demand car services company that is truly revolutionizing personal transportation,” wrote new investor Shervin Pishevar (who Kalanick gushes about as an up and coming VC), “We’re proud to be joined with other investors like Goldman Sachs, Bezos Expeditions (the personal investment company of Jeff Bezos) and previous investors like Benchmark Capital and Lowercase Capital. Founded in 2009, Uber has already radically changed how people in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Washington D.C. and Boston get around town.”
Uber, which officially launched its European operations in Paris in today, currently has 60 cars on the streets and is experiencing heavy demand.
Kalanick said that he plans on using the funding to expand to two cities a month, around the world. Kalanick told me that he will be using the money for replication and domination, “We want to provide as many residents within a city with as many quality transportation options as possible; Major cities around the world have a transportation gap, and the services offered to citizens were the same as they were 50 years ago. Now the technology is available to offer a different kind of service to users.”
Source:http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/07/uber-announces-32-million-in-funding/

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