New leaked docs show Uber IPO coming within next 2 years

The company has taken more money from Chinese companies, bookings to triple to $10 billion this year

Poor Uber. It's hard to feel bad for what is likely the most well funded company ever, but something is going on over there as, for the second time in as many weeks, private documents showing the company's financials, as well its future plans have leaked. It seems like someone, presumably working at Uber (they would have to be to get their hands on this information, wouldn't they?) is pretty unhappy with the company. 

But hey, at least all of the new stuff that has come seems pretty positive, so at least that's something.

Leaked documents showing a presentation for investors, which were obtained by Reuters on Friday, show the company's potential revenue for the year, some new funding and, most interestingly, its plans for an IPO.

That Uber would eventually go public is not news at all. This company has been taking so much money in, over $5 billion by my count, with such valuations, over $50 billion after its last huge fundraising, that it would be insane to think those investors would not want a return on their money. They do and they will get it.

The company has never actually discussed any sort of timetable for that though, but now it seems like an IPO is already in the works, and it may be coming here sooner than expected: Uber is forecasting its IPO to occur with in the next year and a half to two years.

Honestly, I'm already a little excited about the prospect of that. It's going to be an absolutely massive public offering. 

Speaking of funding, the presentation also shows that Uber raised even more money than we knew about, having taken investments from two companies in China: the state-owned China Life Insurance Co. and China Taiping Insurance, China Life confirmed the investment to Reuters, while China Taiping declined to comment.

Asia is an extremely important market for Uber, and it is going heavily into both India and China. Of course it faces massive competition in those countries as well, from Ola in India and from Did Kuaidi in China. The latter recently raised a $2 billion round of funding.

Didi and Kuaidi are two separate apps which merged this year to take on competition from Uber. Didi Kuaidi still runs separate apps that customers use to access their service, while combining their technology and data. 

The company gets around some of the regulatory problems that its competitors have by working directly with existing taxi drivers. There are 2 million taxi drivers in China, and 1.5 million of them are on the Didi Kuaidi network. Going up against that kind of dominance will be challenge for Uber, so taking money from Chinese companies will certainly help.

And, finally, the presentation showed Uber's financial situation, showing that global bookings are projected to triple to $10.84 billion this year and reach $26.12 billion in 2016. Based on those figures, Reuters is calculating that 2015 revenue will be roughly $2 billion. 

Bookings reached $2.91 billion last year and $687.8 million in 2013, but these numbers are incomplete, as they don't show any of the company's expenses or say whether Uber is profitable.

It is very likely that the company is still in the red, as the other leaked documents that came out this month show the e-hailing company losing $56 million in 2013, but then having those losses balloon to $52 million in the first quarter of 2014, and an astounding $108 million in the second quarter of last year,

According to numbers obtained by Bloomberg earlier this year, Uber the company had losses of $470 million on sales of $415 million.

With money already going out faster than it is going in, and with Uber making it clear that it intends to ramp up its services in India and China, profitability might be a long way off. What effect that has on Uber's potential IPO will be the real question going forward.

VatorNews has reached out to Uber for confirmation of the report, as well as comment on what was leaked, but a spokesperon would only say that the company does not "comment on rumor and speculation."

(Image source: kalw.org)