Venture Backers Reap Multi-billion Dollar Payday In Lyft IPO

Lyft

A Lyft Inc. decal is displayed on a car window in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Monday, Nov. 13, 2017. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

Lyft Inc’s initial public offering on Thursday marked the latest chapter in the seven-year journey of the U.S. ride-hailing app, from a startup backed by seed funding to a publicly traded company worth more than $27 billion.

Early investors along for the ride now stand to make what they invested dozens of time over. Lyft‘s founders, Logan Green and John Zimmer, now hold stakes valued at $675 million and $415 million, respectively.

The following is a list of the biggest winners from the IPO. Valuations of the Lyft stakes are based on the company’s share price as of midday Friday:

Logan Green

Value of Lyft stake: $675 million

The co-founder and chief executive officer of Lyft owns 684,591 class A shares and 7,689,182 class B shares and holds a 2.9 percent stake in the company. Class B shares have the same economic value as class A shares but 20 times the voting rights.

John Zimmer

Value of Lyft stake: $465 million

The co-founder and president of Lyft owns 684,591 class A shares and 5,090,527 class B shares. He holds a 2 percent stake in the company.

Rakuten, Inc

Value of Lyft stake: $2.5 billion

The Japanese e-commerce company, which invested $300 million in Lyft in 2015 at a $2.5 billion valuation and then made subsequent cash infusions, is the company’s largest shareholder with an 11 percent stake. Its chief executive officer, Hiroshi Mikitani, sits on Lyft‘s board. Rakuten owns 31,395,679 class A shares.

General Motors

Value of Lyft stake: $1.5 billion

The Detroit automaker invested $500 million in Lyft in 2016. The companies have partnered on autononmous driving efforts, but have become more competitive partly as a result of GM’s acquisition of Cruise Automation, an automated driving startup, later in 2016. GM owns 6.5 percent of Lyft.

Fidelity Investments Inc

Value of Lyft stake: $1.5 billion

The Boston-based financial services company has invested more than $800 million in Lyft, partly the result of leading a $600 million investment round in 2018 that valued Lyft at $15.1 billion. It owns 18,544,716 class A shares and has a 6.5 percent stake in the company.

Andreessen Horowitz

Value of Lyft stake: $1.2 billion

The Menlo Park, California-based venture capital firm led a $60 million investment round in Lyft in 2013 and invested more capital the following year. Its co-founder, Ben Horowitz, sits on Lyft‘s board. It owns 15,040,924 class A shares and holds a 5 percent stake in the company.

Alphabet Inc

Value of Lyft stake: $1 billion

Alphabet led a $1 billion financing round for Lyft in 2017 that valued the company at $11 billion through its Capital G venture capital arm. Alphabet also invested a small amount through its Google Ventures. It owns 12,828,964 class A shares and David Lawee, a partner at Capital G, sits on Lyft‘s board. Alphabet owns 4.5 percent of Lyft.

Reuters

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