Uber Technologies is said to have filed for an initial public offering, joining its competitor Lyft in a race to the investor market.
Dubbed “Project Liberty,” Uber filed paperwork confidentially this week for its IPO and may beat Lyft to be the first on the market in 2019, reported The Wall Street Journal.
Uber’s IPO sets the stage as one of the biggest technology listings ever for Silicon Valley. Recent private financing, reported by Venture Beat , has the company worth $76 billion and if gone public, it could be worth $120 billion in IPO. This would surpass popular companies, including Airbnb and Slack.
The market, however, may be risky for Uber due to its controversies last year over workplace and legal conditions. Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick resigned last year. The company then hired Dara Khosrowshahi as the new chief executive and has seen positive progress since.
The ride-hailing business rose to popularity less than a decade ago and seemed highly unprofitable to stock holders. And may still be—Uber’s third-quarter loss was $1.07 billion amid a sales gain of 38% to $2.95 billion, reported The Wall Street Journal.
However, Uber on its own raised about $18 billion from various investors. The company has not yet chosen the lead banks to put it on the market, although Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are projected.