Lyft buys digital car-top advertising startup Halo Cars

(Reuters) - Lyft Inc has bought U.S.-based startup Halo Cars, which allows drivers to make money through digital advertisements displayed on top of their vehicles.

The deal, first reported by Axios, was confirmed by the ride-hailing company on Friday. Lyft did not comment on the financing of the deal.

Halo Cars was founded in 2018 and has operations in U.S. markets such as New York and Chicago.

Lyft and larger rival Uber Technologies Inc, both based in San Francisco, are pursuing different roads in search of profitability, with Uber pouring money into side businesses which have so far lost money and Lyft focusing solely on moving people around.

With operations only in the United States and some Canadian cities, Lyft said earlier this month its active rider customer base in the fourth quarter grew to 22.9 million from 22.3 million the previous quarter.

That compares with Uber's global 111 million active platform users in the same period.

(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)