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LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.—Lyft Inc. co-founder and President John Zimmer denied reports the ride-sharing firm is for sale and said it has more than doubled its ridership in the U.S. since late last year, with 17 million rides in October.

Ridership totaled about 7 million in December, he said at the WSJDLive 2016 global technology conference.

Earlier this year, the company hired Qatalyst Partners LP, the boutique investment bank known for helping companies find a buyer. Mr. Zimmer said the company had inbound offers from potential acquirers, so it hired Qatalyst to evaluate them.

Lyft has around $1.3 billion remaining in the bank of the more than $2 billion it has raised in total funding and a path towards profitability, though he declined to provide specifics on when. He said the company may go public within a few years.

"We're in no rush to go public, we don't need to," Mr. Zimmer said. An IPO is "something we are likely to do in the future."

He said he expects Lyft, based in San Francisco, to triple its number of rides in 2016 compared with the year before.

The company, like rival Uber Technologies Inc., continues to spend heavily to attract new customers and drivers, primarily through cash rebates, which has hurt their ability to reach profitability. Lyft also has stuck to the U.S., while Uber has gone worldwide, and China-based Didi Chuxing Technology Co. is planning to expand beyond its home market.

Last year, Lyft formed an anti-Uber alliance with Didi and other Asian companies that linked their apps to share access to passengers traveling abroad. The merger this year of Uber's China operation with Didi cast uncertainty on the future of the Lyft-Didi relationship.

When asked about the matter, Mr. Zimmer called it a "'Modern Family' situation," referring to the TV sitcom with complex family relationships. "It doesn't affect our work or our business in any meaningful way," he said.

Lyft is working with General Motors Co., which invested $500 million earlier this year, on developing autonomous vehicles, with the plan of having the majority of rides in big cities completed with such driverless cars within five years, Mr. Zimmer said. Within 10 years, he said, private-car ownership will be "irrelevant."

With the introduction of self-driving vehicles, which face regulatory and technological hurdles, the typical ride could be around $5, Mr. Zimmer said. Lyft eventually will move to a mileage-per-month membership plan, he said.

Write to Greg Bensinger at greg.bensinger@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 25, 2016 13:45 ET (17:45 GMT)

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