Timeline of Uber

This is a timeline of the American company Uber, a transportation network company, which offers a variety of transportation and logistics services, and is an early example of the rise of the on-demand economy.

Big picture

Time period Key developments at Uber
2009–2010 Uber focuses mostly on the San Francisco Bay Area
2011 Uber starts its national expansion.
2012–2013 Uber starts its international expansion.
2014 Uber continues its international expansion and starts offering logistic services (like courier package delivery). It changes its tagline from "Everyone's private driver" to the much broader "Where lifestyle meets logistics".
late 2014, 2015 As Uber's recognition grows, the company starts to face increasing pressure from regulators, both in the United States and in India.
2015 Uber announces a major investment in self-driving cars.
2015 Uber doubles down on its efforts to attain market dominance in India (against dominant player Ola Cabs), China (against Didi Kuaidi, an entity formed by a merger of Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache), and South-East Asia (against GrabTaxi). In response, the dominant players raise huge sums of money to keep Uber at bay, and announce strategic partnerships of various sorts, with the most recent one being a partnership between Ola Cabs, Didi Kuaidi, GrabTaxi, and Lyft, the runner-up to Uber in the United States.

Full timeline

Year Month and date Event type Details
2009MarchCompanyUber founded as UberCab. [1]
2010JulyCompanyUber goes live for the first time in San Francisco.[2]
2010DecemberTeamRyan Graves steps down as CEO in favor of Travis Kalanick.[3]
2011 February 14 Funding Uber announces it has raised $11 million in Series A round led by Benchmark Capital.[1][4]
2011MayNational expansionUber goes live in New York City.[5]
2011 December 5 International expansion Uber expands beyond the United States, starting by expanding into Paris, France. [6]
2011 December 7 Funding Uber announces it has raised $37 million in Series B round, including investors such as Goldman Sachs, Menlo Ventures (with Shervin Pishevar leading Menlo's investment), and Bezos Expeditions.[1][7]
2012July 2 International expansionUber launches in London, United Kingdom.[8]
2012 July ProductUber announces UberX, a service that uses lower-cost hybrid vehicles.[9]
2012AugustCompetitionLyft, a competitor to Uber, launches in San Francisco.[10]
2013 August 8International expansionUber expands to Africa, launches its first product in Johannesburg, South Africa. [11]
2013 August 23 Funding Uber confirms it has raised $258 million in Series C round at a $3.5 billion pre-money valuation, with investors including Google Ventures and TPG Growth.[1][12]
2013August 29International expansionUber expands to India, launching its first product in Bangalore. [13]
2014 April 7ProductUber launches Uber Rush in New York City, a courier service using bicycle messengers to deliver packages. This marks the beginning of Uber's transition into a logistics company. [14]
2014 June 6 Funding Uber confirms it has raised $1.2 billion in a Series D round, with a pre-money valuation of $17 billion. Key investors include BlackRock, Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (with partner Megan Quinn), Menlo Ventures, SherpaVentures (with partners Shervin Pishevar and Scott Stanford), Summit Partners, and Wellington Management.[1][15][16][17]
2014 July 15 International expansion Uber officially launches in China, starting with Beijing. [18]
2014 July 24 International expansion Uber officially launches in Lagos, Nigeria, expanding its presence to Western Africa. [19]
2014 August 6 Product Uber announces UberPool, which lets riders share rides based on proximity.[20]
2014 August 19 Product Uber announces a "test" for a Corner Store, which allows customers to order basic items.[21]
2014 October 22 - November 19 Controversy On October 22, 2014, an article by Sarah Lacy in PandoDaily was published where she sharply criticised the "asshole culture" of Uber and said she intended to delete the app from her phone.[22] On November 17, 2014, BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith reported that Uber senior executive Emil Michael "outlined the notion of spending 'a million dollars'" to hire four top opposition researchers and four journalists. He said that team could help Uber fight back against the press by looking into "personal lives, your families". Michael was particularly focused on journalist Sarah Lacy, who accused Uber of “sexism and misogyny".[23] Lacy wrote a sharp response critical of Uber's actions.[24] The controversy was picked up by CNBC,[25] Business Insider,[26] and the New York Times Bits blog.[27] Michael Wolff, the journalist who had arranged for and invited Smith to the private dinner where the controversial remarks were made, wrote a lengthy piece about the controversy, stating that Uber executives had believed that the event was off-the-record, but that he (Wolff) had failed to communicate the information to Smith.[28]
2014 December 4 Funding Uber confirms it has raised $1.2 billion at a $40 billion pre-money valuation in a Series E round. Key investors include Qatar Investment Authority, Valiant Capital Partners, Lone Pine Capital, New Enterprise Associates, and SherpaVentures.[1][29][30]
2014 December 8 Controversy An Uber driver in Delhi allegedly rapes a passenger when driving her home late at night.[31][32]
2014 December 16Funding Chinese search technology company Baidu announces a $600 million strategic investment in Uber, also classified as a continuation of the Series E round, thereby bringing the Series E total to $1.8 billion.[1][33]
2015 January 8 ProductUber launches Uber Cargo, which allows people to transport packages via Uber drivers. This starts in Hong Kong, and marks the transition of Uber into a logistics company.[34]
2015 January 21 Funding Uber gets $1.6 billion from Goldman Sachs in debt financing.[1][35]
2015 January 22International expansionUber launches its first product in East Africa, in Nairobi, Kenya. [36]
2015 February 2 Team Uber opens robotics research facility In Pittsburgh to build self-driving cars. [37] In May, Uber poaches 50 employees from Carnegie Mellon's National Robotics Engineering Center. [38]
2015 February 14 Competition Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, the two biggest players in the low-cost app-based taxi hailing market in China, announce a merger into Didi Kuaidi. The merged company would be significantly larger than Uber in China.[39]
2015 February 18 Funding Uber raises an additional $1 billion in its $40 billion pre-money valuation Series E, increasing the total Series E money raised to $2.8 billion (after adding the first $1.2 billion and the next $600 million raised from Baidu). The additional investors are Times Internet, Foundation Capital, and Accelerated IT Ventures.[1][40]
2015 March 3 Acquisitions Uber makes its first public acquisition, a map startup called deCarta. [41]
2015 April 15 Competition Ola Cabs, Uber's biggest rival in India, raises $400 million with the goal of growing to 200 cities by the end of the year.[42]
2015 June 17 Legal California Labor Commission deems Uber drivers as employees. [43]
2015 July 15 Legal Administrative judge recommends that Uber be fined $7.3 million and suspended from operating in California. [44]
2015 July 31 Funding It is announced that Uber has completed a Series F round, raising $1 billion at a $50 billion pre-money valuation (so a $51 billion post-money valuation). Key investors are Microsoft and Bennett, Coleman, & Co, Ltd., the parent company of The Times Group, India's largest media conglomerate.[1][45][46]
2015 August 19 Funding Uber raises $100 million in private equity from the Tata Opportunities Fund, a fund of the Tata Group in India, with the goal of using the money to help it double down on its India operations.[47][48]
2015 September 7 Funding Uber confirms it has raised an additional $1.2 billion in private equity from Chinese search technology company Baidu. Baidu had previously invested $600 million in Uber as part of its Series E.[49]
2015 September 9 Competition Chinese Uber competitor Didi Kuaidi, the entity formed through the merger of Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, raises $3 billion to move more aggressively in its battle to maintain market dominance against Uber in China.[50]
2015 September 16 Competition Didi Kuaidi, the dominant Chinese player in China's ride-hailing market, announces a $100 million investment in Lyft, the second biggest player in the United States ride-hailing market after Uber. In addition, the companies announce a strategic partnership, where people can use the Lyft app to get rides using Didi Kuaidi in China, and vice versa.[51]
2015 October 14 Legal The Government of India proposes a legal framework for ridesharing services such as Uber and its competitor Ola Cabs. Both companies claim to welcome the new regulatory framework.[52]
2015 December 3 Funding Uber announces that it is raising $2.1 billion at a $62.5 billion valuation.[53][54]
2015 December 3 Competition Uber competitors Lyft (United States), Didi Kuaidi (China), Ola Cabs (India), and GrabTaxi (South-East Asia) (all of which have Softbank as an investor) announce a global technology and service alliance. This is widely seen as an attempt by the companies to keep Uber at bay. With the exception of Lyft (which is the runner-up to Uber in the United States), all the other companies in the partnership are market leaders in their respective regions of focus.[55][56]
2016 April 12International expansionUber launches in Buenos Aires, Argentina amidst claims of illegality and taxi protests.[57]

References

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