The Avanti Group the equities research house based in Tokyo, providing professional trading and investment research solutions to institutional and private investors across the globe have recently drawn their investor’s attention to the recent the increasing valuation in transport solution online application software company, Uber Inc.

The San Francisco based Uber, whose application to handle transport services, allowing people to use their smart phones to order private town cars and other vehicles such as taxis, has raised some $1.2 billion in a new round of financing which was led by Fidelity Investments. This new funding and accompanying valuation, places Uber Inc at the head of the field of internet startups, with its dramatic pre-money valuation of $17 billion, up significantly from its $3.5 billion valuation in 2013.

Uber’s other main investors in its new round of funding include Wellington Management, BlackRock Inc, Summit Partners, the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, as well as existing backers such as Menlo Ventures and Google Ventures. Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick has announced that the current round of funding would remain open to additional strategic partners that could see a further infusion of around $200 million.

“While in principle we most certainly see good potential in this particular niche, especially following Tencent Holdings investment in Didi Taxi, a very similar Chinese offering that is available in 32 cities and boasts a user base of 222 million that booked 350’000 trips last year, the figure of $17 billion for Uber is pushing the disbelief boundary in a major way,” said a Senior Analyst and Researcher at The Avanti Group.

The new valuation for Uber Inc has set a record for a technology startup involved in its direct investment round. Uber’s $17 billion valuation sees it being worth more than already publicly listed companies such as Hertz Global Holdings Inc and Best Buy Co. Other recent tech startups including Dropbox Inc a cloud-sharing company and Airbnb Inc a short term rental service have raised $10 billion valuations.

“Ordinarily we are cautious to support high valuations on promising tech start ups, this is no exception, Uber is no different with the underlying danger that such an over the top valuation can bring with it. We would be far more comfortable with a reduced value and some signs of solid development, substance over style, unless very detailed growth is displayed we will remain very wary of this case,” concluded the Senior Analyst and Researcher at The Avanti Group.

The Avanti Group is an equity research house providing research and analysis outsourcing solutions for institutional financial traders worldwide, founded in early 2003.