Ola’s global partner Lyft Inc. now ready to open up outside its home US. The second-largest US ride-hailing company will “very likely” expand to other countries, said John Zimmer, the president and co-founder of Lyft.
Against its rival Uber, Lyft has so far focused only on US, while Uber expands in several countries of the world. The smaller San Francisco startup is defending its home turf from Uber partly by spending aggressively on marketing, including promotions targeted at riders and drivers in major US cities.
Speaking onstage at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colorado, Zimmer didn’t specify when the company might expand or where it plans to go. A Lyft spokesman declined to comment.
Lyft’s global alliance includes China’s Didi Chuxing, India’s Ola and Southeast Asia’s Grab.
Zimmer said at the conference that competition is particularly aggressive in China, where Uber and Didi are battling for turf. Uber has said it plans to spend at least $1 billion a year in China.
While Lyft maps its route for expansion, the company has been working with Qatalyst Partners LP on potential deals, people familiar with the matter said last month. In an interview on Monday, Zimmer declined to comment on Lyft’s arrangement with Qatalyst or whether he would like to sell the company. “We’ve hired multiple financial advisers in the last year-plus,” he said.
Lyft’s costly battle with Uber in the US has shown signs of success this year, but the startup is trying to keep costs in check. It promised investors that it would cap losses at $50 million a month, a person familiar with the matter said in April.
At the Fortune conference on Monday, Zimmer said, “We have more than enough money now to get to break-even.” He didn’t say how Lyft would achieve that.