Top Fun Reasons Why Uber is worth every penny of $18.4B valuation!
Uber, the on-demand call taxi service has raised a massive $1.2 billion funding from new and old investors. This puts the valuation for the four-year old company at a mind boggling $17 billion. Here are my top fun reasons why Uber is worth every penny of $18.4B valuation!
1. Uber Needed a Lyft!
If that new kid on the block could warrant $250m then Uber needed at a least 5X "uplift" in valuation to maintain respect on the street with the cabbies!
2. Internet of Uber Things!
Moving people's butts around town is just an MVP. Also moving all the things we rent, buy, consume and own is the real deal. Stay tuned!
3. Monopolize the Sharing Economy!
Uber's not planning on voluntarily sharing any market share of the sharing economy! Collaborative consumption is destined to became a natural first instinct for all consumers and everyone will be "Ubering" all the time. Uber has grand designs to train us all to instinctively deploy their app experience at all times of personal need or desire!
4. Travis the Fearless Legal Gladiator!
Most city governments around the world are constantly at the brink of bankruptcy or fighting budget battles. With billions stashed away in his warchest, Uber can literally threaten to take on entire cities that contemplate lawsuits! $1.2b buys more lawyers than any overtaxed under resourced city electorate could contemplate matching in any protracted legal battle! Look out for world domination around the corner!
5. Google's Grand Plan!
Mark my words, this will all come together when Google acquires Uber in a $60B+ acquisition end-2015. Imagine Larry and Travis on stage together using their Google Glasses to order a driverless Uber limo and then ordering smoothies via Uber via their Android wearables with the drinks delivered by drone from the Googleplex cafeteria to their moving limo! May sound far fetched to you, but it's all just a few heartbeats away from being reality. Keep in mind, Google already owns a good chunk of Uber, so it hardly matters how high that final number climbs ... the world is certain to applaud the two iconic founders for their foresight and the bump up in Google stock will more than compensate for the purchase overnight (that's a certainly now with Blackrock, Fidelity and Wellington part of the family so to say).
6. Uber's Killing It!
Doubling revenue every 6 months, 140+ cities, 35+ countries and growing each week with literally thousands more cities eagerly awaiting a local launch, a reported quarter billion in revenues from San Francisco alone! They are clearly playing hard ball in a winner takes all game - those results deserve to command a winner's premium!
7. Bubble Blowing Time!
When everyone is frolicking in the proverbial ecosystem bubble bath only the stupid ask rational questions ... the smart just work hard, take a deep breadth and blow up as big a bubble of their own as possible ... so when all the crappy bubbles hit the fan and burst ... Uber will have at least $1.2b in soap to wash away any fallout muck!
8. Finally Think UberX!
Friends let me share a inside scoop .... this big fund raise will allow Travis to takeover Elon Musk's SpaceX project. Think UberX - that's the stealth biz plan Travis sold the PE chaps who jumped in this round! Space is after all the final frontier!
Congratulations Travis and the Uber team! Hope you guys build out to every major city in India in the next few quarters!
About the authorRavi Gururaj is Chairman & Co-Founder of Frictionless Ventures where he is building and investing in innovative software products primarily in the cloud, mobile, and big data segments. Ravi is a member of the NASSCOM Executive Council, Chairman of the NASSCOM Product Council and also Co-Founder & Co-Chair of HBS Alumni Angels India chapter.
