Uber has been one of the biggest breakthrough tech companies over the past couple of years with its idea to alter the transportation industry forever. The idea to allow people to offer rides through their personal vehicles accessed right from smart phones has been a new and innovative trend that is rapidly growing. Now Uber is proving its worth once again as the company is raising a new round of funding which will likely put their valuation up to around $40 billion.
The company is hoping to raise a total of $1 billion and already has plenty of investors lined up. T. Rowe Price Group is looking to invest in Uber and has already been a part of funding companies like this before. In the past they have put money into both Twitter and Facebook during their fundraising periods. Uber is hoping to lock up their total fundraising goal sometime soon, but has made no announcements yet on whether they have accomplished the $1 billion mark.
Within the past weeks Uber has dealt with some controversy when company heads were overheard discussing the idea of digging up dirt on journalists that paint the company negatively and altering their privacy policy. Although they claimed the journalist idea was untrue and merely an non-serious response during a personal dinner, it did not sit well with people. The company has also changed their privacy policy that will give Uber access to user’s phone data, which many people have been strongly against and feel that the company has no need or right to access that data.
In the long run, these problems are very minor and investors still seem to be knocking on the company’s door to offer them money to expand the company’s growth. Uber has plans to operate globally and is highly prioritizing getting the app popularized in Asia,which has investors ready to hop on board with the company. In June of this year Uber was able to raise $1.2 billion in funding, so finding more should be no problem at all, especially once these minor media speed bumps blow over.
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