Rediff.com« Back to articlePrint this article

Ola raises $222.5 million in fresh funding

September 15, 2015 13:35 IST

Ola, India's biggest taxi-hailing service, has raised Rs 1,478 crore or Rs 14.78 billion ($222.5 million) in a fresh round of funding from investors led by New York-based Falcon Edge Capital, about six months after the company raised $400 million from investors led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's DST Global.

An industry source said the funding was part of an overall $500 million the company is planning to raise, which will value Ola at around $5 billion.

An Ola spokesman did not respond to an email seeking comment. According to papers filed with the Registrar of Companies dated September 8, Falcon Edge is joined by existing investors Tiger Global Management LLC, Softbank Corp and others.

Ola competes with Uber in India.

The latest round of funding also comes on the heels of San Francisco based Uber's announcement to invest $1 billion in India as the app-based taxi-hailing market in the country heats up.

Ola has said it clocks more than 750,000 trips a day and expects to hit 1 million, while Uber averages about 200,000 trips a day in India, according to industry sources.

On Monday, Ola introduced a cab leasing programme for drivers, saying it will spend 50 billion rupees ($752.67 million) through a subsidiary on the programme that aims to get more drivers on its system and potentially allows for greater control of its fleet of cars.

Over the past few months, Ola has also introduced a bunch of services to take on Uber, including shuttle services, expanding its mobile wallet, introducing wifi-cars to select users and running a cafe service on its app.

Nivedita Bhattacharjee
Source: REUTERS
© Copyright 2024 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.