KKR L P : Taking a Ride with Lyft

By Vincent Letteri Apr 11, 2017

As a participant in Lyft's latest round of funding, KKR is ready to ride with Lyft and partner with them to fundamentally change the way people think about transportation.

Why Lyft and why now?

Transportation is an indispensable part of everyday life, and the $2 trillion transportation market in the U.S. represents a massive opportunity.

Analysts estimate that shared cars accounted for 4% of global miles traveled in 2015 and forecast that number growing to 26% by 2030. Our TMT Growth team spends a lot of time on the road ourselves, getting from Company A to Company B, while traveling to meet Investor C in between them. Often using on-demand transportation services to do so, we, like many others, are already part of this thriving community, but the reality is that the market is still relatively early days, and we believe it is poised to grow significantly.

As we surveyed the field for a potential investment, we started with our own experiences. Every ride we requested began with our asking the driver which service they most preferred to drive for. Time and again, the answer was Lyft. We followed this up with our own research and our findings were consistent: Lyft sets itself apart from the competition. The company's culture is highly customer-centric. One example of this is their recently-announced Round Up & Donate program where passengers can opt in to have their fares rounded up to the nearest dollar, with the difference then being donated to the charity of their choice.

In our analysis, we also saw a mature, focused management team that stands out. We've known John Zimmer for almost three years and watched him thoughtfully grow the business and the Lyft team over time. Lyft's mission is not about being just a good taxi; it is about revolutionizing the way people fundamentally think about car ownership. Their focus on this mission and on offering a quality experience for both passengers and drivers explains why Lyft is now the fastest growing on-demand transportation service in the U.S.

The transportation transformation is well underway, but there is still a distance to go. We are proud to join Lyft on this journey to improve people's lives by changing transportation for the better.