Google parent leads $1B Lyft investment

SAN FRANCISCO — Google’s parent company is throwing its financial support behind ride-hailing service Lyft, deepening its rift with market leader Uber.

Alphabet Inc., which gets most of its money from Google’s digital ad network, is leading a $1 billion investment in Lyft that values the privately held company at $11 billion. The investment announced Thursday is being made through Alphabet’s CapitalG venture capital arm.

Lyft is still far smaller and worth far less than Uber, another privately held company based in San Francisco whose investors have valued it at nearly $70 billion.

But Uber has been enmeshed in internal strife amid management upheaval and allegations of rampant sexual harassment that culminated in the departure of co-founder Travis Kalanick. Uber lured away Expedia’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, to replace Kalanick and clean up the mess.

Lyft has seized on Uber’s turmoil as an opportunity to gain ground on its rival in the rapidly growing ride-hailing market while expanding into more cities across the U.S. Its drivers’ cars can now be summoned by 95 percent of the U.S. population, up from 54 percent at the beginning of this year.

Alphabet, based in Mountain View, Calif., has also emerged as a thorn in Uber’s side, even though Google was among Uber’s early investors and still holds a stake in the company.

Google’s self-driving car spin-off Waymo is suing Uber, alleging that its former ally recruited some of its top engineers as part of an elaborate scheme to steal its trade secrets. The battle is scheduled for trial in December.