The biggest winners from Uber's impending IPO
Since its conception nearly a decade ago, Uber has raised close to $30 billion in funding and become near ubiquitous, capturing close to 70 percent of the ride-hailing market in the U.S.
Now, investors across the board are eagerly waiting for the company’s public debut, which is on course to become one of the biggest IPOs ever.
Uber is expected to go public on Friday, at a valuation somewhere between $80 billion and $90 billion. The ride-hailing company plans to raise as much as $10.35 billion and sell 180 million shares.
Although Uber lowered its valuation after the IPO by competitor Lyft, some investors still stand to score big gains worth billions of dollars, as first reported by technology news website The Information. That includes Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as well as lesser-known investors like Chris Sacca, the founder of Lowercase Capital, who poured more than $2 million into Uber, according to The Information.
Here’s a closer look at some of the biggest winners from the IPO.
Jeff Bezos: Bezos’ invested up to $37 million in Uber’s Series B financing in 2011, according to Wyatt Investment Research. That stake is estimated to be worth close to $400 million, according to The Information. The Amazon co-founder also has a stake in Benchmark, which is Uber’s biggest external investor, ultimately holding 150 million shares worth $7 billion.
Masayoshi Son: Softbank -- which Masayoshi Son heads -- bought 200.8 million shares of Uber last year at $33 per share, or about $6.6 billion, making it Uber’s largest shareholder. Now, that same holding could be worth $10.4 billion.
Travis Kalanick: As previously reported by FOX Business, Uber’s former CEO stands to earn billions of dollars when the company goes public, despite resigning in 2017 because of a number of scandals. Kalanick holds about a 42 percent stake in Uber and still sits on the company’s board of directors.
Garrett Camp: Camp co-founded Uber alongside Kalanick and also still sits on the board. He owns a 5 percent stake in the company.
Google Ventures: In 2013, Google Ventures spent all of its capital on Uber, paying roughly $258 million for 72.5 million shares. The next year, it paid an additional $60 million for another 4 million shares. That stake is now worth about $3.1 billion at $47 per share.
First Round Capital: The venture capital firm invested about $1.5 million in Uber during its first and second seed funding rounds, giving it an estimated 15 or 16 million shares, according to The Information. Now, it has about 38 million remaining shares worth $1.8 billion at $47 per share. The total realized and unrealized of its original $1.5 million investment is estimated to be close to $2.6 billion.
Lowercase Capital: Chris Sacca, an early Twitter investor and the founder of Lowercase, was one of Uber’s first customers, eventually investing about $2.45 million at $47 per share. That would mean his original investment is worth $2.05 billion.
The data above was compiled from The Information, which cited sources with inside knowledge.