Uber booked $2.2 billion in sales last quarter as its giant losses narrowed

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Uber has had a chaotic year, battling lawsuits, sex discrimination allegations, and the departure of many of its top execs. But behind the scenes its business has been slowly improving.

The transportation startup narrowed its 2017 fourth-quarter loss to $1.1 billion from a loss of $1.46 billion in the previous quarter, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

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Meanwhile, the ride-hailing company's quarterly revenue rose 11.8 percent to $2.2 billion from its previous quarter, the source said. Per Bloomberg, it's up 61% compared to 2016.

Uber has gone on to raise more than $14 billion in new funding and last month closed a deal with SoftBank in which the Japanese conglomerate, along with other investors, took about a 17.5 percent stake in the company.

Silicon Valley-based Uber's quarterly gross bookings rose 14 percent to $11.1 billion from the third quarter, the person said.

The company had previously reported third-quarter net loss of $1.46 billion on net revenue of $2 billion. Uber had gross bookings of $9.7 billion in the previous quarter.

The improved numbers come as Uber tries to move past an ugly chain of events. The company has been wracked by a string of scandals, sparked by allegations of sex discrimination by a whistleblower and peaking with the departure of embattled chief executive Travis Kalanick.

Last week, Uber agreed to pay $245 million-worth of its own shares to Google's sister self-driving car company Waymo to settle a legal dispute over trade secrets, allowing Uber's chief executive to move past one of the company's most bruising public controversies.