$3.5 billion is a helluva big valuation. So how is it possible that Uber, which has recently arrived in South Africa (JHB + CPT + DBN are all live), is able to come to such a ballsy valuation?

There’s no doubt the service is what we’ve been looking for and is bound to sink a number of local taxi companies. For the uninitiated, Uber is an app based service that summonses you a chauffeur driven luxury sedan. You watch it arrive on the app screen and you never have to handle money. Why? Because your credit card details are stored in the app. You just get out of the car and walk away. And what’s more, they charge you nearly the same as regular taxi services.

Imagine never having to speak to a taxi operator again? Get the app here and use the promo code iv7f8 to get R90 off your first ride. 

So there’s no doubt the service itself is a winner, but how do you get to $3.5 billion? Simple – Google..

According to AllThingsD:

According to a Delaware filing by Uber Technologies, it has sold stock in the fast-growing privately held transportation service to private equity giant TPG. In addition, according to sources who have seen other stock documents, Uber has also taken a major investment from Google Ventures.

The overall valuation for the San Francisco company, according to the document — filed on August 1 — and also sources, is $3.5 billion.
AllThingsD had reported in late July that Uber was raising at such a valuation and that both TPG and Google Ventures were the principal new investors.

At the time, Uber management declined to comment on rumors and even tried to tamp them down.

The public filing, which is below, indicates that TPG has bought 775,092 shares of Series C-2 preferred shares at $114.03. That is an investment of just under $90 million. According to sources, TPG also bought some shares from existing investors, including longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur Garrett Camp.

In addition, current Uber investor Benchmark has bought an additional 105,234 shares of Series C-1 preferred shares at $142.54. According to the document, that leaves a large number of C-1 shares — about 1.8 million — that sources said had been sold to Google Ventures for about $250 million total. Google is not named in the public document.

That’s how you can value a company – by taking the price paid for a certain amount of shares, and working it back to 100% of the shares.

Not bad going!

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