Ride-sharing app Lyft, which has seen its market share surge in the last year as rival Uber has struggled, is expanding outside of the U.S. for the first time with plans to launch in Toronto.
The company started recruiting new drivers in the Canadian city on Monday. Rumors of Lyft’s Canadian expansion plans have been floating around for a couple of months now. The Information first reported the plans back in September.
The move marks the continuation of a broader push in 2017 to expand into new cities and carve out market share from Uber. It’s notable though because it does illustrate a small shift in Lyft’s strategy.
Until now, it has always focused on the United States while Uber has expanded globally, often facing opposition from local ride-sharing services. Lyft has expanded its operations in the United States by more than 50% in the past 10 months.
Lyft kicked off 2017 by rolling out its service to 40 cities in January. A month later it expanded to 54 more cities, including expansions into Iowa, Florida, Georgia, and Wisconsin. Lyft is now available in more than 350 U.S. cities.
Meanwhile, Uber hasn’t had the smoothest operations in Canada. The company said in September it would stop operating in Quebec following new regulations. Uber still operates in Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Toronto.
In October, CapitalG, the growth investment fund of Google parent company Alphabet, led a $1 billion financing round in Lyft. The investment puts Lyft’s post-money valuation at $11 billion.
