Ola raises blockbuster $315M funding to stay ahead of Uber in India

India’s homegrown on-demand cab service giant Ola has raised US$315 million from a clutch of investors, including Russian venture capitalist Yuri Milner’s DST Global, and existing investors Tiger Global, Steadview Capital and Accel Partners, according to a filing today with the country’s Registrar of Companies (RoC).

As per the filings, DST Global led the round of funding, investing about US$206 million, while existing investors Tiger Global invested US$40.65 million, Steadview Capital US$10.5 million and Accel Investors about US$5 million. Other investors included ABG Capital, Mauritius Investments and Rahul Mehta.

With this round, Ola has raised over US$600 million across several rounds of funding. About six months ago, Olacabs secured US$210 million in its series D round led by Japanese internet and telecom giant SoftBank. Prior to that, it nabbed US$41.8 million in series C cash led by Hong Kong-based hedge fund manager Steadview Capital and Silicon Valley-based Sequoia Capital.

This is Ola’s series E or fifth round of institutional funding, which would make it the third most funded tech venture in India behind online marketplaces Flipkart and Snapdeal. It will also strengthen its position against global giant Uber.

Powering ahead in India

Last month, Ola acquired homegrown rival TaxiForSure for US$200 million, making it “bigger than Uber in its home country,” the startup boasted.

All three players have entered into a price war which is where most of the funding is being burnt. Besides, Ola also claims of aggressively ramping-up to increase its presence four-fold to 200 cities by the end of this year, from 52 cities at present.

It has over 100,000 cabs on its platform, serving 200,000 customers daily and has been adding over 1,000 cabs to the service each day.

The firm also began making “auto” – aka motor rickshaw – bookings available in beta mode across six cities in India including Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Pune and Ahmedabad. Another new category that is currently in beta mode is Ola Pink, which are cabs driven by women drivers and reserved solely for female passengers in Bangalore. It also started adding the conventional black and yellow cabs of Mumbai into the Ola mobile app.

(Source: Business Standard)