Carl Icahn has invested $100 million in Lyft at a $2.5 billion valuation
The remaining $50 million comes from Icahn's long-time rival, Marc Andreessen and his firm, Andreessen Horowitz.
In a spar over eBay, Icahn once said "Andreessen, he's screwed more people than Casanova, for Christ's sakes."
Icahn believes "ridesharing is poised to become a fundamental component of our transportation infrastructure."
Jonathan Christodoro, one of Icahn's managing directors, will join Lyft's Board of Directors as part of the investment.
"Carl Icahn's record as an investor is unparalleled. His recent success investing in the technology sector stems from a focus on companies that deliver incredible long-term value to their customers, such as Apple, Netflix and eBay/PayPal," John Zimmer, Lyft's president, said in a press release. "We're thrilled to partner with Carl during this exciting period in Lyft's growth as we work to rebuild the U.S. transportation infrastructure and reconnect local communities."
Zimmer went on to say the new investment will allow Lyft to increase its US presence, innovate on its existing products, and improve its passenger and driver experiences.
The new investment in the company is an extension of Lyft's $530 million Series E round that it raised in March, led by Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten.
"We are very happy to be investing in Lyft. I believe that ridesharing is poised to become a fundamental component of our transportation infrastructure," Icahn said in a press release. "The Company's revenue growth to date has been extremely compelling, and increasing urbanization over the next 5 to 10 years should enable the Company to maintain that trajectory. Additionally, I've been very impressed with Lyft's founders and management team, and I believe they are well-suited to take advantage of this opportunity and to make Lyft an extremely successful company."
Icahn thinks that there's room for more than one ridesharing company. "If you look at the way the market evaluates Uber and then look at the valuation of Lyft-Lyft is a tremendous bargain," he told the WSJ. "There is room for two."
Leaked internal documents from Lyft seem to back up these claims.
Last month, Bloomberg obtained an internal presentation, which shows that Lyft is still experiencing growth, but it's costing the company a lot of money. The presentation says Lyft, which currently isn't profitable btu says it could soon be, is spending more than 60% of its revenue on marketing, which has allowed the company to grow its ridership 4x last year.
The company delivered 2.2 million rides in December 2014. And in 2014, the presentation says, Lyft booked $130 million in revenue - that's combined net revenue from its ride-hailing service Lyft Classic and gross revenue from its ridesharing service Lyft Line in December 2014. Lyft is projecting $796 million in revenue for 2015.