Lyft gets $600M richer with new funding

Lyft just got a new infusion of funding that could give it more power to compete against its rival Uber .

The ride-hailing company said Wednesday that it's now $600 million richer because of a financing round led by Fidelity Investments. Meanwhile, Lyft's valuation stands at $15.1 billion, compared with $7.5 billion in April 2017.

"As Lyft grows, we will double down on our values, and invest in the vision that cities should be built around people, not cars," the company wrote in a blog post.

Compared with Uber, Lyft has long been the smaller ride-hailing company. It's received $5.1 billion in venture funding (including this round), whereas Uber has received $16 billion and is valued at an estimated $68 billion. But as Uber has labored to get its footing after being mired in scandals last year, Lyft has gained ground.

Like Uber, Lyft has begun working on self-driving car technology and is looking into other forms of rentable transportation like bicycles and electric scooters . Lyft has also grown in market share over the last year and says it now has 35 percent of the US market. Last year, it also launched in its first international market, Canada.

With its new investment, Fidelity is now one of Lyft's largest investors with more than $800 million in the company. Lyft has also received funding from dozens of other investors including Alphabet's investment arm CapitalG, Alibaba and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

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