Uber’s hungry for even more cash with plans for $2bn leveraged loan
Thought the most highly valued private tech company in the world had enough money to throw around? Apparently, it doesn't.
Uber is rounding up another $2bn (£1.4bn) to its already pretty huge cash mountain in its bid for world domination, but this time it's tapping the cash via a leveraged loan.
Read more: Apple's favourite Chinese Uber rival has raised another $600m
Barclays and Morgan Stanley are underwriting the loan of between $1bn and $2bn, the Wall Street Journal reports, just weeks after landing $3.5bn in equity investment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the biggest ever single investment in a private company.
The new money would bring total funding in debt and equity for the startup to around $15bn.
A leveraged loan carries a higher risk than other types of funding and is used by firms with higher than usual amounts of debt, but it allows Uber access to cash without giving away equity.
Read more: Uber reveals London ride-sharing figures for UberPool
According to Uber boss Travis Kalanick, the taxi hailing app is losing $1bn a year in China – a huge but competitive market – he revealed earlier this year.
"We have a fierce competitor that's unprofitable in every city they exist in, but they're buying up market share. I wish the world wasn't that way," he said, referring to Didi Chuxing, the homegrown service recently backed by Apple.
Most valuable private companies in the world
| Company |
Valuation |
Total equity funding |
Last valuation |
| Uber |
$68bn |
$12.9bn |
June 2016 |
| Xiaomi |
$46bn |
$1.4bn |
December 2014 |
| Airbnb |
$25.5bn |
$2.3bn |
June 2015 |
| Didi Chuxing |
$25bn |
$5bn |
May 2016 |
| Palantir |
$20bn |
$1.9bn |
October 2015 |
| Meituan-Dianping |
$18.3bn |
$3.3bn |
January 2016 |
| Snapchat |
$16bn |
$2.4bn |
May 2016 |
| WeWork |
$16bn |
$1.4bn |
March 2016 |
| Flipkart |
$15bn |
$3bn |
April 2015 |
| SpaceX |
$12bn |
$1.1bn |
January 2015 |
WSJ billion dollar startup club