India's Ola raises $104m
Indian ride-hailing operator Ola has raised INR6.7 billion ($104 million) from Falcon Edge Capital and RNT Capital Advisors, a VC fund backed by Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of the company that controls Tata Group.
Falcon Edge committed INR4 billion to the company while RNT Capital invested INR2.7 billioon, according to local media reports citing documents filed with India’s Registrar of Companies. Ola’s parent Ani Technologies issued 495,000 fresh shares to both investors at INR13,521 each.
The share price indicates a slight improvement in the company’s valuation, which was reported as about $3.5 billion in November when SoftBank made an investment of INR16.8 billion - although that was down from $5 billion as of its Series F round in 2015. SoftBank also indicated in November that it had marked down the part of its investment portfolio that includes holdings in Ola and Indian online marketplace Snapdeal.
Founded in 2010, the Ola platform offers taxis, luxury vehicles, auto-rickshaws and shuttle buses, and claims to have more than 450,000 vehicles at its disposal across 102 cities. The company has raised over $1.5 billion to date from private market investors including SoftBank, Tiger Global Management, and Chinese counterpart Didi Chuxing. Falcon Edge has participated in several of Ola’s previous rounds.
Ola is currently burning cash as it struggles for market dominance with Uber, which has increased its focus on India since selling its China operation to Didi Chuxing last year. The documents cited by Indian media indicate that Ola’s net loss for 2016 grew to INR23 billion from INR8 billion the year before, even as revenue grew from INR1 billion to INR7.6 billion over the same period.
Last year Didi and Ola entered a strategic global partnership with Lyft and GrabTaxi, ride-hailing apps based in the US and Southeast Asia, respectively. The partnership allows the four companies to leverage each other’s technology, local market knowledge and business resources so that customers of one service can use the same app to order rides in other markets.
RNT Capital was launched last year as a partnership between Ratan Tata’s investment firm RNT Associates and the University of California. The firm’s debut fund is said to target $150 million, and will comprise third-party capital as well as contributions from RNT Associates and the university.
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.