India’s ride-hailing major Ola secures $139 million, valuation soars to $7.3 billion

Ola has secured US$139 million in Series J round led by Edelweiss PE. IIFL, ultra-high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and corporates also participated in this latest funding round.

Alongside, Ola has acquired GeoSpoc, a geospatial services provider for $3.4 million.

The latest funding round fastened the mobility startup’s valuation at around US$7.3 billion.

The funding comes at a time when Ola is preparing for its IPO in the first half of the next year. Ola that competes with US-based Uber Technologies in India, plans to raise up to $1 billion through its IPO.

Diving Deeper

According to regulatory filings, Edelweiss Crossover Opportunity Fund contributed about US$ 33 million, while IIFL Monopolistic Opportunity Market Intermediaries Fund and IIFL Special Opportunity Fund collectively pumped in about US$ 24.7 million.

This is Ola’s second funding tranche this year.

In July this year, existing investors including Matrix Partners India and Tiger Global, along with a few angels, sold shares worth $500 million to Warburg Pincus and Temasek, Singapore Government’s investment firm in a secondary transaction.

This deal valued the ride-hailing aggregator’s valuation at around US$3.5 billion. It also witnessed Bhavish Aggarwal (cofounder Ola) invest primary capital.

Ola’s consolidated operated revenue, which includes financial services and food delivery services for the fiscal year 2021 stood at $129 million against over $360 million in FY 2020.

The company claims that its revenue has been severely impacted due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

According to co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal, Ola’s GMV has crossed pre-pandemic levels in the last week of August 2021 and that the recovery from the second wave which hit the country in April-May 2021 had been 3x compared with after the first wave in 2020.

Ola claims to have added 10 million users in 2020-2021 and the company has been working on entering new cities, onboarding more driving partners, and developing new products to better serve mobility.

Founded in 2010, by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, the ride-hailing company has also diversified into car leasing and has a separate arm for selling electric scooters.