Report: Uber reaches $50 billion valuation with new funding

SAN FRANCISCO – Uber has raised another monster round of funding to value the car-booking company at a whopping $50 billion, making it the highest-valued venture-backed company in the world, according to a report Friday.

Uber, the gorilla of ride-booking apps, has raised close to $1 billion from investors, according a report from the Wall Street Journal. With the fresh round of financing, Uber surpasses Xiaomi to lay claim to the highest valuation among private companies with VC funding. China’s Xiaomi, an electronics company and one of the world’s largest smartphone distributors, is valued at $46 billion.

Uber’s valuation now matches the high-water mark set by Facebook in 2011, when the social network company reached a $50 billion market cap.

Investors in the latest round include Microsoft and the investment arm of Indian media conglomerate Bennett Coleman & Co., a person familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.

The cash flow will likely fuel Uber’s aggressive global expansion, which comes with hefty expenses as the company fights regulators, the powerful taxi industry and even criminal charges in countries across Asia and Europe. Uber on Friday announced it would invest $1 billion in India over the next nine months to improve operations and expand the number of cities it serves there.

Uber is currently in 58 countries and 311 cities.