Saudi prince invests in ride sharing app Lyft, company valued at $2.5 billion

A firm owned by a Saudi prince said Thursday it had led a group that invested around $248 million (226 million euros) in US ridesharing service company Lyft. Kingdom Holding Co, which is 95 per cent-owned by billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, invested $104.9 million in the San Francisco-based startup, it said in a statement. The investment is equivalent to a 2.3 per cent stake. Kingdom Holding invested $31 million in a capital increase and spent $73.9 million to acquire preferred shares from other investors, it said. The statement did not identify the co-investors. Lyft announced an expansion of its alliances with Asian partners earlier this month, increasing its challenge to rival Uber. Lyft is valued at $2.5 billion, while Uber has become one of the world’s most valuable startups, worth an estimated $50 billion. Kingdom Holding’s diversified interests range from the Euro Disney theme park and Four Seasons hotels to News Corporation and Citigroup. The Saudi tycoon and his firm also became Twitter’s second-largest shareholders in October. AFP