Bloomberg research: ridesharing startups raised $28B in 2017 despite tougher regulations in many places, boosted by Softbank's investments in Uber, Ola, Didi
Mark Chediak / Skift :
Context & Ripple Effects
The $28B that ridesharing startups pulled in during 2017 was not evenly sourced: SoftBank sat on both sides of the biggest rounds, including Ola's $2B raise alongside Tencent, after backing Uber and Didi as well. That continues a pattern from 2015, when Uber and Didi each raised billion-plus rounds in China and Ola took $500M explicitly to defend its lead over Uber in India.
First-order effects
- SoftBank's checks became the marginal source of growth capital for Uber, Ola and Didi, letting all three keep spending on subsidies and expansion even as local regulators tightened rules in many markets.
Second-order effects
- Rivals had to match the pace of these mega-rounds or cede share — Ola's earlier $500M raise at a $5B valuation was framed directly as keeping its lead over Uber — pushing valuations up faster than unit economics could justify.
Third-order effects
- The concentration hardened into structure: SoftBank later moved $20B+ of ride-hailing stakes into its Vision Fund ([[a:928894]]), and by late 2018 Japanese firms held at least $13B combined in US ride-hailing startups, meaning a handful of investors now sit across competing platforms rather than picking winners.
The trend: Ride-hailing is consolidating around a few sovereign-scale investors whose cross-portfolio stakes span rival platforms, making fundraising totals less about market enthusiasm than about one backer's balance sheet.