INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Transportation-on-demand service Lyft, now valued at over $15 billion after raising another $600 million in June, is on the hunt to scale
One move it might not be making soon, however, is to expand operations into Spain and Latin America by way of an acquisition of one of the
leading players in the region.
Cabify says it &categorically denies& that it is in conversations with Lyft for a full or partial
acquisition: the two were reported by Spanish newspaper El Confidencial(and subsequently reblogged by others) to be in negotiations, with
Lyft preparing to pay up to $3 billion for the company, although the two might partner in future to provide services to each other customers
in their respective footprints.
&We categorically deny the rumors about alleged conversations in relation to the sale of the company,& the
company said in a written statement (in Spanish originally… see Spanish statement at the bottom of this post)
&[Cabify] has not been meeting with managers of this or other companies to negotiate a possible partial or full sale of Cabify
The company is in an unbeatable state of financial health and sustainable growth, and continues to establish itself in a leading position in
the markets in which it operates.
&As we have previously said, the company remains committed to a plan for an IPO in Spain, potentially in
the next 12 to 24 months.& The company was last valued at $1.4 billion after a fundraise of $160 million earlier this year.
Cabify
spokesperson further said that the two companies have not been meeting for any kind of negotiation, and would not comment on whether the two
might work together on any kind of ridesharing partnership, whereby customers of Lyft, for example, could use the Cabify app when travelling
in the 38 cities in Latin America, Spain and Portugal where it operates.
&We have nothing to state about that either,& she said
&If we have news in the future, I will for sure let you know.&
A partnership between the two makes some sense, but might also be
complicated, in equal measure.
On the one hand, the two companies share an investor, the Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten; and they also
share a common competitor, the ridesharing behemoth Uber, and tying up their services, so that their loyal customers do not revert to using
Uber when travelling, makes a lot of sense, since once they start they might simply jump to Uber when back home, too.
(We have also reached
out to Rakuten and will be contacting Lyft when the West Coast wakes up to see if it would like to respond to the report too.)
On the other
hand, one of Lyft investors, Didi, has acquired one of Cabify other big rivals in Latin America, 99, and so it makes less sense that Lyft
would pursue a partnership that could increase business for a competitor of one of its biggest backers.
Then again, the current
transportation market — bent as it is on finally becoming profitable after sustaining years of losses, built on collectively billions of
VC dollars, to grow — is consolidating rapidly, and many of the fiercest rivals have suddenly started combining as a result
So anything can happen.
Lyft has raised more than ten times the amount of capital that Cabify has, respectively$4.9 billion versus around
$407 million, and has yet to expand beyond its home market of the US
The company made some waves a couple of years ago when it announced aridesharing partnership with Southeast Asia Grab, China Didi, and India
Ola, nothing has really come of that deal to date, and now Grab is inching closer to an acquisition of Uber SEA business.
But Lyft clearly
has its sights on expansion, one way or another.Just yesterday, my colleague Kristen reported that Lyft (along with Uber) was in acquisition
talks with crowdsourced bus company Skedaddle.
Spanish statement:
En relación con las noticias publicadas sobre la posible venta de Cabify
queremos afirmar lo siguiente:
• Desde Cabify desmentimos de manera categórica los rumores sobre supuestas conversaciones en relación a
la venta de la compañía.
• No se han estado manteniendo encuentros con los directivos de esta ni de otras compañías para negociar una
posible venta parcial o total de Cabify
La compañía se encuentra en un inmejorable estado de salud financiero y de crecimiento sostenible, y continúa estableciéndose en una
posición de liderazgo en los mercados en los que tiene presencia.
• Como ya anticipamos, la compañía sigue comprometida con la hoja de
ruta natural marcada, con la salida a bolsa en España en los próximos 12 o 24 meses como objetivo.
