Why is Alphabet Investing in Lyft Now?

Ride-hailing start-up Lyft has a big new investor: Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL).

Lyft announced on Thursday that CapitalG, Alphabet's investment fund, is leading a $1 billion financing round for Lyft. The move follows an agreement made in May between Lyft and Alphabet's self-driving subsidiary Waymo to work together on the development of autonomous-vehicle technology.

It also follows a flurry of interest in Lyft by several automakers and tech companies working on self-driving technology of their own -- including General Motors (NYSE: GM), which made a big investment in Lyft last year.

Source: Fool.com