DST leads $315m round for India taxi-booking service Ola
DST Global has led a $315 million investment in ANI Technologies, operator of India taxi-booking platform Ola, alongside existing investors Tiger Global Management and Steadview Capital.
According independent research firm Tofler, which cites a Registrar of Companies filing, DST contributed around $206 million to the round, while Tiger Global and Steadview put in $40.7 million and $10.5 respectively.
Accel, which had backed the recently acquired TaxiForSure, contributed a further $5 million, with other smaller investors making up the balance.
Ola acquired rival TaxiForSure for $200 million in a cash and stock deal last month, adding TaxiForSure's network of 15,000 taxis across 47 cities to Ola's 70,000 taxis - and 30,000 auto rickshaws - across 85 cities. Aside from Accel, the merger also saw TaxiForSure backers Helion Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Blume Ventures, take a share in the new business.
Ola and TaxiForSure - which still operate independently of each other - together dwarf global rival Uber in India. Riteshi Bangali, a partner with Helion, estimates the combined entity is around 10 times the size of Uber India in terms of rides.
Including this latest investment, Ola has now raised just under $600 million across five rounds, not including the $40 million raised by TaxiForSure prior to it being bought. Ola's last funding round was led by SoftBank which invested $210 million with Matrix Partners, Steadview, and Tiger Global last October. Before that, Steadview and Sequoia led a $41 million round in July.
Following the deal, VC Circle reported that SoftBank remains the largest shareholder with 22.95%, while Tiger Global, Matrix, and DST hold 20.58%, 12.4%, and 7.9%, respectively. However, this could change as Ola is said to be looking to issue more shares to bring the round up to $400 million.
Private equity and venture capital investors are pursuing taxi-booking platforms across the region. In China, DST is one of the backers of Didi Dache, while Tiger Global and SoftBank lined up behind its direct rival Kuaidi Dache. It was announced in February that the two companies would merge.
SoftBank also led a $250 million round for Southeast Asian taxi aggregator GrabTaxi in December. Tiger Global is also an investor.
More on South Asia
Latest News
Asian GPs slow implementation of ESG policies - survey
Asia-based private equity firms are assigning more dedicated resources to environment, social, and governance (ESG) programmes, but policy changes have slowed in the past 12 months, in part due to concerns raised internally and by LPs, according to a...
Singapore fintech start-up LXA gets $10m seed round
New Enterprise Associates (NEA) has led a USD 10m seed round for Singapore’s LXA, a financial technology start-up launched by a former Asia senior executive at The Blackstone Group.
India's InCred announces $60m round, claims unicorn status
Indian non-bank lender InCred Financial Services said it has received INR 5bn (USD 60m) at a valuation of at least USD 1bn from unnamed investors including “a global private equity fund.”
Insight leads $50m round for Australia's Roller
Insight Partners has led a USD 50m round for Australia’s Roller, a venue management software provider specializing in family fun parks.