Rideshare giant Lyft began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market today, raising $2.3 billion in its initial public offering.
Lyft sold 32.5 million shares at $72 per share. The stock is trading under the ticker “LYFT.”
As of 12:15 p.m. Eastern Time, the stock was trading at $84.25 per share, up 17% from the IPO price. The IPO is expected to give the ride-hailing company a market valuation of $24 billion.
Lyft’s IPO increases validation for auto finance to adapt to emerging business models and leverage the growth of ridesharing through dealer-focused shared mobility, said John Possumato, chief executive of DriveItAway, a company that connects ride-hail drivers with dealerships’ idle inventories.
“The success of the Lyft IPO now kicked the need to adapt to a ‘serious’ level, from a ‘this may be a fad’ dismissal,” Possumato told AFN. “It’s one thing for [venture capitalists] to place overwhelming valuations on these companies in private funding, but when the broader market on Wall Street validates — and increases — these valuations, it takes [ride-hailing] to a whole new level of impact.”
The auto industry is already anticipating the impact ride-hailing will have on the future of mobility. Daimler AG and BMW Group invested $1.1 billion in a mobility and ride-hailing joint venture last month. The joint venture is “one more domino falling in what we see as furthering the trend in OEMs teaming up to address major market changes with mobility,” said Jeremy Acevedo, manager of industry analysis at Edmunds, when the OEMs announced the joint venture.
DriveItAway’s Possumato said the experience of Lyft’s IPO is an indication of where the market is heading. “If this ‘first hand’ live experience is any indication of the broader market, I think that we will see many adaptions and evolutions in the business, like never before, through the course of 2019,” he said.
