Uber valued at about $51 bn after latest funding round

Citing anonymous sources, The New York Times reports that Redmond contributed “a substantial amount” of the $1bn, which brings the vehicle app firm’s total valuation close to $51bn.

The Journal says investors in this latest round include Microsoft and Bennett, Coleman, and Company Ltd., the flagship brand of India media conglomerate The Times Group. (Previous rounds have included undisclosed funders.) Microsoft declined requests for comment.

Uber has raised an enormous war chest at this point, far more than any other private, venture-backed company.

Uber’s valuation has now reached the high-water mark set by Facebook in 2011, when Goldman Sachs offered wealthy clients outside the U.S. shares of the social network that implied a $50 billion valuation, not including the money raised.

Uber is now more valuable than China’s Xiaomi, a smartphone manufacturer, which the WSJ said was worth $46bn as of December.

Five years after its launch, Uber is valued at more than $50 billion.

Unlike the two auto rental giants – Hertz which is valued at $7.8 billion and Avis at $25 billion – Uber is not a auto service company and does not own vehicle fleets to maintain, which keeps costs down. The company had also drawn regulators’ ire, which had banned the company from California to Brazil. The driver denied wrongdoing and is now on trial.

Microsoft Corp.is infusing $100 million into Uber Technologies Inc.in the cab-hailing company’s latest round of fundraising.

Uber’s endless appetite for cash is driven by its equally ambitious plans for expansion. That round could be closed as soon as next week, the person familiar with the situation said.

Uber also confirms that they would invest $1 billion planning to invest $1 billion (Rs 6,400 crore) in India, its second largest market after the US, in the next nine months.