Lyft Inc. has filed for an initial public offering, gaining an early advantage over rival Uber Technologies Inc. in their unofficial race to hit the stock market.

The ride-hailing provider announced the move today but shared few specifics. Lyft has yet to determine the number of shares that will be sold and the target price range, while the IPO filing itself is confidential.

But a source did provide some concrete information to Reuters, telling the news agency that the company is looking to launch the offering in the first half of 2019. Lyft has reportedly already hired banks to underwrite the IPO.

Insiders told the Wall Street Journal in October that the ride-hailing provider had selected Credit Suisse Group AG, and Jefferies Group LLC and JP Morgan Chase & Co. to help it go public. JP Morgan is said be serving as the lead underwriter. The Journal report claimed that the bank had snagged the deal after giving up its role in Uber’s IPO, which is set to take place after Lyft’s during the second half of 2019.

Uber’s offering is shaping up to be the much bigger one. Lyft received a $15.1 billion valuation after a funding round earlier this year, while Uber has been reportedly told by banks that it could hit the stock market with a market capitalization as high as $120 billion. The difference reflects Uber’s significance lead in the market, which Lyft is actively working to narrow.

The company disclosed in May that it controlled 35 percent of the U.S. ride-hailing market, up from 20 percent from 18 months ago. Lyft also has a significant presence in the nascent bike- and scooter- sharing market. According to the tipsters who divulged JPMorgan’s involvement in its IPO plans, Lyft generated revenues of $563 million in the third quarter compared with $300 million a year earlier.

Like Uber, the company is burning through a lot of capital to drive growth. Lyft’s losses reportedly widened from $195 million to $254 million in the third quarter, while Uber lost $1.07 billion on revenues of $2.95 billion during the same three-month period.

The ride-hailing giants’ IPOs will test investor appetite for fast-growing but unprofitable tech firms amid the increased turbulence in global markets. Recent selloffs have been fueled in part by the escalating trade dispute between the U.S. and China. This morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite are both down about 2 percent on the news that Canada has arrested a top Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.’s executive for extradition to the United States.

Photo: Lyft