One of the leading ride-hailing brands, Uber is looking to raise $2.1 billion. It is the most valuable private technology company on paper, at a current $50 billion valuation. Once completed, the investment will value the company at $62.5 billion.

Currently, Uber is informing its potential investors that it has a gross revenue rate of over $10 billion globally. The major portion of this money is given to its drivers. Tiger Global Management, led by its business partner Lee Fixel, participated in Uber’s latest investment round. The participation of Tiger Global Management is interesting as it has previously invested in two of the Uber’s biggest competitors i.e. Ola and GrabTaxi. This might be the first time a major institutional investor has participated in the rounds of both Uber and its competitors.

This news indicates that Uber is accelerating its race to expand globally and branch into services beyond picking up and dropping off riders. The company has tested food and package delivery in some cities, and is working on new technology, such as self-driving cars. Uber has already earmarked at least $1 billion towards its growth efforts in the Chinese market. Recently, it has made Ride Request Button available in 3^rdparty mobile travel apps to bring new customers onboard.

Observing the rapid expansion of Uber in different markets, its cab-rental rivals – Ola in India, Didi Kuaidi in China, GrabTaxi in Southeast Asia and Lyft in the USA had announced a strategic global rideshare partnership. Ola operates in 102 Indian cities. Didi takes seven million rides per day across 360 Chinese cities. Lyft in the US runs in over 190 cities and claims to have 7 million rides per month and GrabTaxi leads Southeast Asia with up to 1.5 million daily bookings across six countries. The four companies together can turn into a major challenger for Uber.

For international travellers, this association means seamless ridesharing across multiple countries. For example, an Indian Ola user can use the same app in Singapore to hail a GrabTaxi and vice versa. The companies will connect and use each other’s technology, local market knowledge, and business resources for enhancing growth.

How will Uber expand further in different markets and confront the four leading ride-hailing brands is yet to be seen.

The post Uber strives for $2.1 Billion in funding at $62.5 billion valuation appeared first on TravHQ.

One of the most popular ride-hailing apps, Uber has launched a new ‘Ride Request Button’ that iOS and Android developers can easily plug into their commercial apps using just a few lines of code. With the help of this button, the travel  businesses can provide Uber cabs to their customers.

Hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs, movie theatres and other commercial places can integrate this feature in their respective apps. With this integration, travellers will be able to tap to instantly get a ride to a hotel, restaurant, movie theatre or any other destination. For example, restaurant apps can put a Request Ride button next to the addresses of eateries they display. Also, a few concert apps can help the travellers immediately get on their way to the shows they just heard about.

The ‘Ride Request Button’ will be highly beneficial for multiple players of the travel industry. Uber has already integrated with many popular apps like Google Maps. Through this feature, Uber will be able to integrate with other third-party apps and expand its business. Uber will pay U.S. developers $5 for each first-time rider that they refer. This new feature will be useful for the travellers as they will be able to book Uber cabs from the restaurant’s or movie theatre’s app without wasting any time.

Uber has always aimed to operate everywhere – physically and virtually. The new ‘Ride Request Button’ will help the brand get involved with the third-party apps. It is quite clear that Uber is ready to take on the on-demand transportation market.

The post Uber’s ‘Ride Request Button’ will be available in other mobile apps now! appeared first on TravHQ.