Uber: Easy and Convenient Access to Luxury Cars for Hire

Uber is a San Francisco, California-based mobile application startup, providing connection between passengers and drivers of luxury cars for hire. In the US, Uber covers the areas of Sacramento, Baltimore, Detroit, Phoenix, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Denver, Atlanta, San Diego, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area. Other cities covered by Uber’s services include Toronto, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Melbourne, Stockholm, Sydney and Singapore.

Uber’s fleet includes Cadillac Escalades, Mercedes Benz S550, Lincoln Town cars and BMW 7 Series. Reservations are done through text messages or mobile application. The customers can also track the location of their reserved cars through the app.

Three entrepreneurs named Garrett Camp, Oscar Salazar and Travis Kalanick founded Ubercab in 2009. The idea was conceived in the 2008 LeWeb conference held in Paris. Uber’s product was first launched on Android and iPhones in 2010 in San Francisco.

Uber.com was a domain originally owned by a blogging and social networking company, which shut down in September 2008. UberCab purchased the domain from the Universal Music Group in 2010.

Since 2010, Uber gradually expanded its reach until service points were also opened outside the US. More cities are set to be reached by Uber’s mobile app. Meanwhile, plans to venture into non-taxi ridesharing are on the way.

One of the major obstacles for startups is funding, but not for Uber. Upon its launching in 2010, Chris Sacca and other angel investors in Silicon Valley funded Uber. In early 2011, Benchmark Capital and other investors raised $11.5 million for Uber. Later that year, other investors such as Bezos Expedition, Menio Ventures and Goldman Sachs raised $32 million to bring Uber’s initial funding to $49.5 million.

In April 2012, Uber offered conventional taxi reservations at lower prices in Chicago. In July 2012, the company brought 90 Jaguar and Mercedes Benz drivers to London. Other offshore markets also opened later.