Investor Lyft: Why Autotech Ventures chose not to invest in Uber



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When Autotech Ventures invested in Lyft in 2016, the company was already worth $ 4.5 billion and was starting to take a Uber market share in the United States.

Uber, meanwhile, already had ratings more than 10 times higher than those of its smallest competitor.

Nevertheless, Alexei Andreev, co-founder of the venture capital fund that manages about $ 200 million of capital, maintains his decision to accept the smaller of the two.

"First, we certainly knew better Lyft thanks to John Zimmer, we organized barbecues several times and we felt really good about it," said Andreev in an interview with Business Insider. "He is a graduate of the Cornell Hotel Department, so he is very focused on the customer experience." By the end of the day, you need to make sure your customers are satisfied and that they continue to contact you after an experience. positive. "

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Autotech would end up investing $ 120 million of its first fund in Lyft in early 2016, a stake it still holds today. According to conventional calculations, at the current market value of the post-tumultuous IPO, the company's stake could rise to around $ 360 million, provided that no stock will be sold at the end of the 180-day lock-up period.

Lyft's share price has been somewhat stabilized after a dramatic fall in its first month of trading. In the future, Andreev says that he will be looking for the company to entice runners to do more walks on the platform.

"We will monitor the number of repeat customers or the number of Lyft uses standardized for customer growth," he said. "How many times does an average customer make a booking per month and what is the cost of acquisition for the company?"

According to Andreev, despite the presence of very small players in niche markets, the great running industry is probably reduced to Uber and Lyft.

"Personally, I think we're down to two players," he said. "If they act rationally, both companies should be in great shape financially."

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