A Delaware story: Lyft’s $150M round of funding

Sometimes, on a beautiful Saturday morning, you just want to laze around in your favorite velvet track suit and read regulatory financial filings from states with tax structures that favor tech startups.

To wit, ride-sharing startup Lyft has designated 14.8 million shares of stock to sell at approximately $10.13 per share — around $150 million, total — in a fourth institutional (“Series D”) round of funding.

This factoid was unearthed in an amended incorporation certificate (embedded below), which was filed two days ago in Delaware. No SEC Form D has yet surfaced to confirm whether the offerings have been sold in their entirety, but that filing is likely around the corner.

In addition to previous money raised, this $150 million brings the company’s total venture capital to date to roughly $233 million.

The company last raised funding about a year ago, taking in $60 million in May 2013.

“We have an ambitious goals and we know that,” said Lyft founder John Zimmer in a VentureBeat interview at the time of the last funding round.

“They [our investors] all know there are regulatory hurdles — but it’s clear we’re going beyond what’s expected in terms of safety,” he said.

Let’s talk about those hurdles for a moment, as they represent Lyft’ single greatest risk factor as an investment.

Last year, Lyft started growing quickly enough that it got under the skin of cab drivers in several cities, including San Francisco and even Seattle. Turns out, city-approved cabbies don’t like unregulated laypeople taking their business. And cities, including New York City, are taking action to crack down on companies like Lyft, Sidecare, and even Uber.

Then, a Lyft driver hit a pedestrian in an accident in San Francisco, basically underscoring every fear regulators and investors could have about the business and its drivers’ accountability.

But all that hasn’t stopped the company. It’s currently plotting international expansion and growing rapidly stateside, all while increasing its insurance options for drivers.

Here’s the full filing, with a hat tip to Liz Gannes at Re/code:

LYFT, INC.