Uber-rival Lyft goes international, expands to Toronto

For the first time in its history, on-demand ride-hailing company Lyft will expand to a city beyond the United States.

On Monday the firm announced plans to jump the northern border to Canada. It’s first destination will be the country’s largest city, Toronto.

“We’ve been looking forward to taking our brand of ridesharing international for some time, and we’re super pumped to share this with our close friends up north,” Lyft wrote in a statement.

The company has partnered with other ride-hailing companies outside the US, namely China’s DiDi Chuxing and India’s Ola, but its name wasn’t associated with that expansion.

The move comes at notable moment in the company’s history.

In October 2017, Alphabet’s investment division CapitalG dropped US$1-billion into the company’s investment kitty. It also recently completed a new plan for expansion to all US states.

Last month, Lyft announced that completed its 500-millionth ride, with reports suggesting that it could command a third of the American on-demand transport market by the end of 2017.

Toronto is set to receive the service by the end of the year.