Investors in ride-share service Uber claime the companies value is an incredible $40 billion, making it one of the most valuable private companies in the world alongside Koch Industries, Xiaomi and IKEA.

However some call this claim ludicrous, considering Uber's growth, but new information from CEO Travis Kalanick puts the massive growth of the taxi-service into perspective.

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According to Kalanick, in San Francisco Uber is three times larger than the city's entire taxi-industry, with $500 million in revenue per year, compared to $140 million. And San Francisco is still a growing market for Uber at 200 percent per year.

In London and New York the company is seeing even more growth, up to 600 percent per year in London.

Considering Uber also landed a huge deal in China with Baidu to launch its taxi-service, it is clear why investors are valuing Uber so highly. In the next 5 years, Uber could completely strip the taxi-industry, especially in the big cities where it is already popular.

Uber still has not discussed the potential of going public, the company finished two rounds of Series D and E funding, each for $1.2 billion, alongside a $500 million venture with Baidu in December.

The size of the investors and amount of investment groups involved definitely show Uber's private records are impressive. The only issue currently is Uber's PR being in the pits, due to poor business practices.

TagsUber, taxi, San Francisco, Travis Kalanick