SoftBank invests Rs 1,675 crore in Ola in fresh round of funding
Experts said the Japanese firm pumped in the money to give the cab-hailing service more strength to compete against Uber.
Indian cab aggregator Ola has received Rs 1,675 crore from SoftBank in a fresh round of funding, PTI reported on Friday. The Japanese telecom and internet major had bought nearly 13 lakh shares in ANI Technologies, which runs the Bengaluru-based taxi-hailing service, in November last year. SoftBank is also Ola’s largest shareholder.
Experts said SoftBank pumped in the money to give Ola more strength to combat its American rival Uber in India. After selling its Chinese business to Didi, Uber has been focusing on capturing the Indian market.
This round of funding has lowered Ola’s valuation from $4.5 billion (around Rs 29,000 crore) to around $3 billion (approximately Rs 19,300 crore) on a pre-money basis, which means valuation excluding the current round of cash investment, reported Mint. The funding is part of the ‘down round’, according to The Economic Times, which is when a company raises money from investors at a valuation lower than its previous round of fund-raising.
In addition to Ola, another major Indian startup raised $1.4 billion (approximately Rs 9,038 crore) from three investors earlier this week. Tencent, eBay and Microsoft pumped in the amount to Flipkart, after which the e-commerce giant’s valuation fell from $15 billion to $11.6 billion.