Jaguar Land Rover invests $25 mn in US ridehailing company Lyft

The next Lyft car you book may soon be a Jaguar or a Land Rover.

The British company behind the two iconic car brands announced on Monday that it was investing $25 million into Lyft to help the ride-hailing business expand and develop technologies.

Also, as part of the investment, Jaguar Land Rover has agreed to supply a fleet of its vehicles.

The investment is from InMotion Ventures, a unit of Jaguar Land Rover that focuses on autonomous cars and other technology.

The collaboration will provide a “real-world platform helping us develop our connected and autonomous services”, according to InMotion Managing Director Sebastian Peck.

InMotion had earlier invested in SPLT, a Detroitbased digital carpool business. SPLT works with Lyft to provide non-emergency medical transport.

Lyft had also earlier this month announced that it was forming a research partnership with self-driving start-up nuTonomy. The two companies plan to look at how passengers book and route a self-driving car as well as how they interact with the same.

San Francisco-based Lyft operates in 300 cities. It has also partnered with General Motors to research autonomous ridehailing. Microsoft AmAzon.com FAcebook AlphAbet ClAss A Apple US equities tumbled on FridAy After Robert Boroujerdi, globAl chief investment officer At GoldmAn SAchs Group Inc., wArned thAt low volAtility in shAres of FAcebook Inc., AmAzon.com Inc., Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp. And Google pArent AlphAbet Inc. mAy be blinding investors to risks such As cyclicAlity And regulAtion, According to A Bloomberg report. There were concerns thAt the situAtion wAs similAr to the tech bubble thAt burst in 1999-2000. These five compAnies—for which GoldmAn SAchs hAs coined the Acronym FAAMG—erAsed A collective $97.4 billion from their mArket vAlue. In reAction, the S&P 500 InformAtion Technology Sector GICS Level 1 Index tumbled 2.7%. S&P BSE Sensex Stock ExchAnge of ThAilAnd

The negAtive sentiment spreAd to AsiAn And EuropeAn stocks when trAding opened on MondAy. Hong Kong’s HAng Seng index fell 1.24% And JApAn’s Nikkei index shed 0.52%. IndiA, too, wAs not immune. If Anything, this wAs A good excuse for the mArket to consolidAte After repeAtedly hitting new highs in the pAst few weeks. Key equity indices closed lower on MondAy As globAl sentiment weighed. The Nifty breAched 9,600 points before closing At 9,616.4 points, 0.49% lower.