Uber's self-driving unit gets $1 bn investment

The self driving unit of global ride-sharing major Uber has announced a $1 billion investment from Japanese conglomerate SoftBanks Vision Fund, car manufacturer Toyota and automotive component supplier Denso.

"Excited to announce Toyota, Denso and the SoftBank Vision Fund are making a $1 billion investment in Uber, as we work together towards the future of mobility," Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi tweeted late on Thursday.

Toyota and Japanese auto-parts supplier Denso will together invest $667 million, while Softbank's Vision Fund will invest $333 million. SoftBank is already Uber's largest shareholder, the CNBC reported.

Car maker Toyota invested $500 million in Uber in August 2018 when the two companies announced their intention to bring pilot-scale deployments of automated Toyota Sienna-based ridesharing vehicles to the Uber ridesharing network in 2021.

Uber officially filed its IPO process last week with the public filing of its prospectus. It would be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol "UBER".

"We have incurred significant losses since inception, including in the United States and other major markets. We expect our operating expenses to increase significantly in the foreseeable future, and we may not achieve profitability," the company had said in the "S-1" form or the IPO Prospectus submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The company noted that as of December 31, 2018, it had 91 million or 9.1 crore monthly active platform users. There were 3.9 million or 39 lakh drivers on the platform by the end of 2018.

According to market sources, the company may provide a price range for its shares later in April and would go public in May.

--IANS

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