Uber lost $1.5bn (£1.1bn) in the third quarter of the year, reversing recent progress that had seen the $70bn tech firm stem the red ink in recent months.

The latest financials, disclosed to investors as Uber attempts to secure a major funding round from the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, will raise doubts about its ability to turn its millions of customers and global presence into profits.

The ride-hailing app had appeared to make progress cutting its losses so far this year, even confidently expressing that it was on the path to profitability, but the third quarter loss was a 38pc increase on the $1.06bn reported in the second quarter.

Revenues increased 14pc on the previous quarter to $2bn while bookings, the money it takes from customers before paying it back to drivers, were up 11pc to $9.7bn.

Uber is the most loss-making private technology company in history, having blown through billions of venture capital funds in recent years in an expansion driver as it attempts to control the world’s biggest cities.

It has recently pulled back from frontier markets such as China and Russia, merging with local players in an attempt to cut losses and prepare it for going public as early as 2019. But an array of internal problems and government investigations have dented its reputation and created new regulatory hurdles, including the loss of its licence in London.

SoftBank is leading a consortium seeking to invest billions in Uber in a complicated transaction that will see it buy some shares from existing investors. It emerged earlier this week that it has offered to buy shares at 30pc under its $70bn headline valuation.

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