Ola is a ride‑hailing platform that operates in India as well as Australia, the U.K. and New Zealand and reports over a million drivers on its platform. The company has been raising capital ahead of plans to file for an initial public offering early next year. In a recent filing Ola disclosed a $139 million investment tranche that values the company at about $7.3 billion. Five months earlier Ola raised $500 million in a round led by Temasek and Warburg Pincus, into which CEO Bhavish Aggarwal also invested. The business said its ride‑hailing operations rebounded after New Delhi eased COVID restrictions, but the company and its spun‑out unit Ola Electric have faced product delays, executive departures and competitive pressure. Ola Electric, which spun out in 2019, has also been raising capital and unveiled electric scooters that have seen delayed deliveries amid chip shortages. Ola is a Bangalore-headquartered ride-hailing platform operating in over 100 cities in India and has expanded to Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. It has amassed over a million driver partners and had about 32 million monthly active Android users in India in June, up from about 26 million in May (Uber had roughly 22 million). The company leads the Indian market and competes directly with Uber. Ola spun out EV business Ola Electric in 2019; that unit is seeking funding and will soon begin production of electric scooters. Mobility firms were hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, but Ola says it has seen strong recovery post-lockdown and a shift in consumer preference away from public transportation. The company was previously backed by SoftBank and was valued at under $5 billion in its prior financing round. Ola Financial Services (OFS) operates the Ola Money digital payments and financial-services business within Ola. The company aims to build consumer-first, digital-first financial products leveraging Ola's ride-sharing platform reach, per CEO Bhavish Aggarwal. Aggarwal said the financial services space is significantly underserved due to weak distribution, low trust, and complicated products, presenting a "once in a lifetime" opportunity. OFS has raised about Rs 205 crore in its maiden institutional financing round from Matrix Partners and others and was valued at roughly $250 million (about Rs 1,875 crore) according to sources. Leadership at OFS is shifting: head Nitin Gupta has decided to move on and Harish Abhichandani has been named interim CEO. The fundraise and leadership changes come amid broader stress at Ola: the company cut 1,400 jobs and reported a roughly 95% revenue decline over the prior two months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ola Electric Mobility was created as a dedicated, independent EV business backed by parent company Ola, which provided founding capital. The unit will focus beyond vehicles on charging solutions, EV batteries and developing infrastructure to enable commercial EV operations at scale. Leadership includes Ola executives Anand Shah and Ankit Jain and former car-maker executives; the team has partnered with “several” OEMs and battery makers. Ola Electric inherits links to Ola’s connected-car platform and intends to work closely with the automotive industry to create seamless electric-vehicle solutions. The company has set ambitious commercial targets: Ola previously pledged to add 10,000 electric rickshaws and had a goal of one million EVs by 2022 as part of its broader electrification efforts. Financially, Ola Electric has just secured early external funding alongside Ola’s founding capital to accelerate its plans. Ola is a ride-hailing company founded in 2010 that offers transport services across more than 100 Indian cities and has expanded internationally to Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. Beyond ride-hailing, Ola operates payments, food delivery and bicycle services and has invested in electric scooters. The company has raised around $3.3 billion from investors to date and recently took in ₹520 crore (about $75 million) from existing investor Steadview Capital. Filings from that investment indicate Ola’s business is valued at roughly $5.7 billion, up from recent lows and higher than a $4.3 billion figure reported last year. Additional deal activity includes a Competition Commission approval for a Temasek-affiliated vehicle to acquire 7% of Ola and a reported SoftBank term sheet for a prospective $1 billion investment. Sources in the article say the ₹520 crore top-up appears to be an early tranche of a larger, sizeable fundraising round that may close in multiple tranches.

Total raised

$3.1B

Funding rounds

14

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Dec 2021