IPO bound ridesharing company Ola Cabs has raised about $500 million in the latest round of fundraising, with the participation of Temasek Holdings and the New York-based American private equity firm Warburg Pincus. Temasek Holdings is an investment fund owned by the Singapore government and has remained an investor in Ola Cabs since 2018.
The fundraising comes at a time when Ola’s business has been struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has had an adverse effect on the mobility sector. The company’s valuation after the transaction was not revealed.
Ola’s founder Bhavish Aggarwal recently released a statement, saying, “Over the last 12 months we’ve made our ride-hailing business more robust, resilient and efficient”. He talked of utilizing the opportunity the ride-sharing company had in the urban mobility sector with people preferring private rides over public transportation due to health concerns. The company is also planning to go public, following a trend of various Indian tech. startups like Paytm and Zomato who are in the process of getting listed.
Meanwhile, the MD of Warburg Pincus, Vishal Mahadevia said that Warburg was excited to invest in Ola which he called one of the biggest consumer internet platforms in the country. “We look forward to collaborating with Bhavish and the team in the next phase of Ola’s growth,” he said on the fundraising.
Ola Cabs is also making a foray into the Electric Vehicles(EVs) sector and is planning to soon start the production of electric scooters. The company has created a separate entity called Ola Electric for its EV business. It is currently constructing a 500-acre two-wheeler production plant in Tamil Nadu.
