Lyft

Lyft is a privately held American transportation network company (TNC) based in San Francisco. The company's mobile-phone application facilitates peer-to-peer ridesharing by connecting passengers who need a ride with drivers who have a car. Lyft operates in about 195 U.S. cities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City, with plans to expand domestically and internationally.

As of January 2016, Lyft had raised more than $2 billion from investors including General Motors ($500M), Carl Icahn,Rakuten, Coatue Management, Alibaba, Andreessen Horowitz, Fortress, Third Point, Founders Fund, Mayfield Fund, K9 Ventures, and Floodgate.

History

Establishment

Lyft was launched in the summer of 2012 by Logan Green and John Zimmer as a service of Zimride, a ridesharing company the two founded in 2007. Zimride focused on ridesharing for longer trips, often between cities, and linked drivers and passengers through the Facebook Connect application. Zimride eventually became the largest rideshare program in the United States (U.S.).