Lyft Kicks Off Busy Year Of Unicorn IPOs

Lyft said on Monday it would seek to raise as much as US$2.4 billion in its public share offering, in the first major listing in the fast-growing ride-hailing sector.

The San Francisco startup could be valued at more than US$20 billion under the terms of the initial public offering unveiled Monday, setting a price per share of between US$62 and US$68.

Lyft's launch is the first of what is expected to be a wave of IPOs from venture-backed startups worth more than US$1 billion, known in Silicon Valley as "unicorns."

Lyft's listing comes ahead of a larger offering expected from Uber, which has a valuation of some US$70 billion.

Others expected to move to Wall Street this year include the business collaboration firm Slack, visual discovery startup Pinterest and possibly the big data group Palantir.

Shares will be traded on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "LYFT."

Lyft is proposing to sell 30.8 million shares with an underwriters option for an additional 4.6 million.

No date was given for the listing, but the Wall Street Journal said Lyft shares could begin trading by the end of next week, when a final price will be set. (AFP)