India's Ola receives $500m Series F round
India ride-hailing service Ola has completed a Series F round of funding, raising $500 million at a reported valuation of around $5 billion.
The round was led by new investor Baillie Gifford with participation from existing backers such as Falcon Edge Capital, Tiger Global Management, SoftBank Corp, DST Global and Chinese peer Didi Kuaidi. Ola has now received $1.3 billion in backing from private market investors since it was set up in 2010.
A filing was made in September for an initial tranche of $225 million, led by Falcon Edge alongside Tiger Global, SoftBank and six other investors. Didi Kuadi's involvement emerged later the same month - a notable addition, given Didi Kuadi has also invested in Southeast Asia's GrabTaxi and US-based Lyft. Ola and all three of these companies are in competition with an aggressively expanding Uber.
The valuation of the latest round is also significant, particularly in light of concerns that investors are becoming wary of ever larger private rounds for technology companies. Ola's Series E closed in April with $400 million committed at a valuation of $2.4 billion. DST led that round, with participation from Tiger Global, Steadview Capital, Falcon Edge, GIC Private, and Accel Partners.
Ola claims to have grown 30-fold in the past year and now receives more than one million booking requests every day. It has 350,000 vehicles registered on its platform and operates in 102 cities nationwide. Uber India currently operates in 22 cities and is targeting one million rides in 2016.
Ola will use the fresh capital to "further accelerate growth in the Indian market with a focus on building mobility for a billion people." The company offers a range of services, including standard taxis, high-end vehicles, auto-rickshaws and now carpooling. It has also launched Ola Money, a digital wallet app that can be used to pay for rides and shop online.
In September, Didi Kuaidi - the product of a merger between one-time rivals Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache - closed a $3 billion funding round, said to be the largest ever fundraise by a private internet start-up globally. This was on top of an initial $2 billion round raised in July.
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