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Lyft To Go Public in Mega IPO, But Will It Ever Be Profitable?
Lyft will be the first ride-hail company in history to go public and is chasing a $1.2 trillion U.S. consumer transportation market. Despite growing to $2.2 billion in revenue, Lyft continues to generate staggering losses, losing over $900 million in 2018 alone. Our coverage report delves into whether Lyft will ever be profitable and what it would take to get there.
By going public before Uber, Lyft could control the narrative on what the company is worth and execute on its “nice guy” of ride-hail image.
- Phil Haslett, Founder, Chief Strategy Officer of EquityZen
How Did Lyft Get Here?
Lyft: Path to a $25B IPO
On March 29, 2019, Lyft became the first publicly traded ride-hail company in history by listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker "LYFT." The company raised approximately $2.5 billion from public investors at a $25 billion fully-diluted valuation ($72 per share). Lyft had last raised capital in June 2018 at a valuation of approximately $15 billion ($47.35 per share). Early investors like Floodgate, Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz waited 10+ years for Lyft to publicly list and were handsomely rewarded with 70%+ internal rates of return.
