Brazilian Uber rival 99 has raised US$100 million from Japan’s SoftBank, in a deal that could throw another monkey wrench in Uber’s plans to expand in emerging markets.
SoftBank will become a minority stakeholder, joining China’s Didi Chuxing, a company in which SoftBank is also a stakholder.
The deal was completed last week when 99’s chief executive, Peter Fernandez, visited SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son in Japan.
Speaking on the political crisis currently facing Brazil, Mr Fernandez said that “the political and macroeconomic situation did not affect our discussion…that does not affect the fundamentals of our business, because at the end of the day, there are 200 million people who still need transportation.”