Alternative cab booking service Uber Inc. is said to be close to raising a new round of funding that would bring its valuation to a whopping $40 billion, according to a Bloomberg report yesterday. The company is hoping to bring in at least $1 billion from the fresh round, the report said.

Among the investors willing to ply it with readies are T. Rowe Price Investment Services, Inc., together with current investor FMR LLC. If true, the new funds would come just five months after Uber raised $1.2 billion last summer, a round that helped its valuation quadruple compared to the previous year.

Bloomberg said that no deal has been struck yet, and that the terms and investors could change before any official announcement is made.

Uber has become something of a poster child for an emerging on-demand service economy that covers everything from cloud computing to marijuana. The company, whose smartphone app connects drivers with riders, has grown massively since it first appeared five years ago. Its cars now whisk people around in 204 cities in 45 countries, and Uber claims its coverage extends to 55 percent of the US.

But Uber’s success has been mired in controversy. It’s been the target of frequent protests in European cities by cab drivers who complain it has an unfair advantage over them because it’s not subject to the same kinds of fees and regulations placed on taxis. In January, Uber was forced to apologize for sabotaging rival services with fake bookings, while only this month there have been allegations of a smear campaign against journalists who reported negatively about the company

Most recently, Uber’s questionable privacy practices have been the subject of scrutiny, with at least one publication describing its app as being “dangerously close to malware”.

Nevertheless, investors seem ready to bet on Uber’s ability to ride through the storm of negative publicity, even as rival service Lyft reports its best week ever.

As to what Uber will do with all that extra cash, there are plenty of possibilities. Expansion is the obvious one – it’s already been very aggressive in that respect, rolling out its services in Beijing, Dubai, Taipei, Singapore and South Korea over the last year. Uber can also use the cash to try and fend off the competition from Lyft, or perhaps even try to buy the company outright – something Lyft’s investors have allegedly been pushing for.

Finally, Uber will also want to keep some money ready for upcoming legal battles as it faces regulatory hurdles in almost every city where it has a presence. Only yesterday, Uber was reportedly banned in the state of Nevada on grounds its refusal to comply with the necessary state licensing requirements could put the public’s safety at risk.

Image credit: Uber.com