Uber IPO: Bigger Than 77% of the S&P 500

Investors will have to wait a little longer for the Uber IPO. That’s because the ridesharing service announced $1.2 billion of new venture financing.

The Uber valuation at the time of the financing was a staggering $40 billion.
Uber is flush with cash, and plans to raise even more capital. The $1.2 billion is part of a $1.8 billion financing round. Plus, earlier this week we learned that Uber hired Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) to raise even more money from its high-net-worth clients. Initial estimates are for an additional $500 million to $1 billion.
If successful, that would result in a $2.8 billion cash infusion for Uber. With such a rich balance sheet, an Uber IPO could be months away.
The $40 billion Uber valuation is astounding. In fact, the latest round of financing values Uber at more than 77% of the companies in the S&P 500. It also values Uber at nearly 20% of Facebook (Nasdaq: FB).
With early-stage, high-growth companies, conventional valuation metrics don’t often make much sense. But it’s worth putting the value of Uber in context.
If Uber were a public company today and was included in the S&P 500 index, the company would be the 117^th-most valuable company. That would make it worth more than huge and well-known companies including: Delta Air Lines, Kraft Foods, Charles Schwab, and Xerox.