Uber, the popular on-demand transportation company, is now worth $40 billion thanks to a new funding round totaling $1.2 billion. Setting aside the fact that private, venture-backed company valuations are merely speculative until they go public, let’s compare Uber to some of the most valuable companies in the world: those on the Fortune 500.
Based on market capitalization data pulled today, Uber is now more valuable than 359 of the 469 publicly-traded companies on the Fortune 500, or about 77% of them. (That figure decreases to 72% if we add the 21 privately-held companies on the list. The catch is that we cannot determine the market capitalizations of those companies.)
Uber’s paper valuation is now higher than the following household-name companies:
Kraft Foods Group
Delta Air Lines
General Mills
CBS
Rite Aid
Macy’s
Viacom
Dollar General
Kellogg
KKR
Nordstrom
Halliburton Company
Archer-Daniels Midland Company
Omnicom Group
Charles Schwab Corporation
YUM! Brands
DISH Network
Aetna
Estee Lauder
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Kroger
Cardinal Health
Aflac Incorporated
Hilton Worldwide Holdings
L Brands
Hershey Company
ConAgra Foods
Whole Foods Market
Boston Scientific Corporation
Harley Davidson
Hormel Foods
Dollar Tree
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Dr Pepper Snapple Group
Campbell Soup Company
Best Buy
Clorox
Hertz Global Holdings
MGM Resorts
Mattel
The Fortune 500 is based on the annual revenue of U.S.-based companies. Uber’s revenue figures are private, but a leak of Uber’s financials shows the company was expected to do $1 billion in transactions in 2013, and is on track to do $1.5 billion to $2 billion this year.
Uber takes an approximate 20% cut from its transactions. That cut of $2 billion in revenue would be $400 million, which is not enough to land Uber on the Fortune 500. Even $2 billion in gross revenue isn’t enough: No. 500 on this year’s list, United Rentals, had $4.9 billion in revenue last year.
With its nosebleed valuation, investors are betting on the four-year-old company’s rapid growth. Uber has been doubling its revenue every six months, according to comments made by CEO Travis Kalanick in June of this year. At $40 billion, Uber more than doubled its valuation from just six months ago. The company is likely bound for an IPO, even as it grapples with a bad reputation. Investors don’t seem phased by the company’s negative publicity, because Uber is making them filthy rich. At Uber’s previous $18 billion valuation, early investors were set to make 2000 times their investment. Now, at $40 billion, the “Uber Rich” are only getting richer.
