On-demand ride company Uber has hired Goldman Sachs to raise money from the bank’s high-net-worth clients, Fortune has learned.
Goldman’s global wealth management team was informed of the deal this morning, and began sending out packets of information to their clients. All we know right now is that the offered securities are structured as convertible debt, and could raise hundreds of millions of dollars to support Uber’s balance sheet and international expansion efforts.
This offering is completely separate from a previously-reported fundraise targeted at institutional investors, which could raise more than $1 billion at around a $40 billion valuation. Given that Goldman clients would have fewer downside protections and information rights than would the institutional backers, this deal likely comes with a significantly lower valuation.
It is unclear what clients are being told about possible liquidity scenarios, given that they’ll be getting convertible notes for a company that is neither promising an IPO nor one that permits secondary trading of its stock. In the past, Goldman has managed similar fundraises for then-IPO candidates like Facebook.
To date, Uber has raised around $1.5 billion from firms like Benchmark, Fidelity Investments, First Round Capital, Lowercase Capital, Menlo Ventures, Google Ventures, TPG Capital, Summit Partners, Wellington Management, BlackRock and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Goldman Sachs also is an existing investor.
An Uber spokeswoman declined to comment.
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