Uber reportedly raising a new round at $10B valuation

Alternative-cab service Uber is raising another big funding round, this time with the potential to give it a valuation above $10 billion, Bloomberg reported today, citing unnamed sources.

This would be a big bump up from Uber’s most recent valuation of $3.5 billion at the time of its roughly $350 million funding round last year.

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The new round for Uber reportedly includes private-equity investors — something that’s common these days, following similar moves from fast-growing companies like Airbnb, New Relic, Hortonworks.

Uber did not immediately respond to VentureBeat’s request for comment.

The black-car service faces a growing pile of lawsuits from cab and insurance companies and the family who lost a 6-year-old girl in a recent accident in San Francisco, the city where Uber has its headquarters. Uber is also attracting attention from regulators of cabs.

A heaping bag of fresh cash would help Uber handle all such cases and at the same time roll vehicles into more cities and come out with new services that could appeal to more consumers.

Uber competitor Lyft announced a $250 million funding round last month. Sidecar announced a $10 million round in February.

The company has been making plenty of moves recently. Uber continues to expand into more cities, along with rolling out several new services. People can order up rides in sport-utility vehicles. Last month, Uber kickstarted an on-demand courier service. And Uber now permits you to install a child car seat for an additional fee — a good fit for families with kids.

Uber has become so widely available that Google Maps now shows people how long an Uber trip would take in comparison with other modes of transportation.