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> I think it's telling that they didn't have any traditional investors in their most recent round. No, it's not telling at all. If you're trying to raise $500M
by argonaut 11y ago
> I think it's telling that they didn't have any traditional investors in their most recent round.
No, it's not telling at all. If you're trying to raise $500M, you don't have many choices. You're looking at 1) IPO, 2) private equity, 3) strategic investors. IPO has obvious problems. The fact that Lyft chose strategic investors doesn't say much. I'm sure there were tons of Asian private equity funds clamoring to invest.
- viscanti 11y ago> If you're trying to raise $500M, you don't have many choices. Every other unicorn in the world suggests otherwise. This is the first large round by either GM or the Saudi prince. The Saudi prince isn't even a strategic investor, he's just a guy with a deep bank account. VCs and Private Equity Firms have been incredibly active in later stage rounds for Unicorns. Late state rounds almost never have a single investor. That's true for Lyft this round. It's telling that they couldn't find any of the more traditional investors to invest (even for a part of the $250M they weren't able to sell).
- argonaut 11y agoNo, all the unicorns get their funding from the same options I just outlined. The Saudi prince invests through his private equity sovereign wealth fund. Also wrong on the single investor. Firstly, we don't know that GM was the only investor in the round. It is common not to name all the investors. For example, in Uber's recent private equity round, Baidu was the investor, and other investors, if any, were not announced.