Uber App Is Now Worth $18B

Only four years after its launch, the company behind the car service app Uber is now worth more than Avis and Hertz combined. Via Forbes:

Uber’s meteoric rise has led to a recent round of valuation-guessing, which started at $12 billion and edged up to Friday, when the Wall Street Journal reported the company said it’s raising $1.2 billion — more than most startups are ever worth — at an $18.2 billion valuation. That valuation likely makes CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick a billionaire. It also means Uber, which raised $360 million in August at a $3.8 billion valuation, has almost quintupled its valuation in the past year. Uber is second, behind Facebook, in a list of most valuable venture-backed companies. Facebook raised a round in 2011 that valued it at $50 billion.

Uber’s market cap now also exceeds those of United Continental Airlines, Sony,  and Fiat.