Dec. 04--Uber Technologies Inc. may have had a bad month of publicity, but that doesn't appear to have bothered investors.
The ride-hailing company said Thursday that it had raised $1.2 billion in new financing, giving it a valuation of $40 billion, more than double the $17 billion it was valued at in June. The new figure makes it the most highly valued U.S. technology start-up.
Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick wrote in a blog post that the additional funds will allow the company to generate more than a million jobs worldwide and expand into new cities, "particularly in the Asia Pacific region."
The announcement of the latest infusion of investment capital comes shortly after Uber made headlines when a top exec made comments at a dinner party about putting together a team to investigate journalists critical of the company.
Kalanick vaguely acknowledged the bad public relations the company has recently faced, writing in the blog post that "the events of the recent weeks have shown us that we also need to invest in internal growth and change. Acknowledging mistakes and learning from them are the first steps."
