The Telegraph
Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal is putting more money into Ola, giving the domestic ride-hailing company more ammunition to compete with its American rival Uber.
Bansal this time has invested Rs 650 crore in Ola. In January, Ola had issued shares worth Rs 150 crore to Bansal as part of the Series J round of funding.
The investment of Rs 650 crore is in Bansal’s personal capacity and is also the largest financing by an individual in Ola till date, the company said in a statement.
Sachin, who founded Flipkart over a decade ago with Binny Bansal, had quit the online retail platform after Walmart, the US retail behemoth, picked up a 77 per cent stake in the Indian e-commerce company for $16 billion.
It was reported that Sachin got $1 billion by selling his 5 per cent stake in the firm. Besides investing in Ola, Bansal has formed a new venture called BAC Acquisitions with investment banker Ankit Agarwal.
“Ola is one of India's most promising consumer businesses, that is creating deep impact and lasting value for the ecosystem’’ Bansal said.
He also took to micro blogging site Twitter where he said, “thrilled to be part of this journey with Bhavish Aggarwal and the Ola cabs team. Ola is a household name today and is a global force in the mobility ecosystem. Their success is important for all of us and I’m excited about the vision they are building ’’.
The investment is part of Ola's plans to raise about $1 billion in funding. In October last year, the Bengalore-based company had raised $1.1 billion from China's Tencent Holdings and SoftBank Group. It had then stated that it was in “advanced talks” to close an additional $1 billion funding to take the total mop-up to more than $ 2 billion.
Ola is locked in a battle for market leadership with Uber in India and other markets such as Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
It has also been ramping up other business like food delivery operations through Foodpanda. Ola had acquired Foodpanda's India business from Germany's Delivery Hero in an all-stock deal in 2017.
“We are extremely thrilled to have Sachin on board Ola as an investor. Sachin is an icon of entrepreneurship and his experience of building one of India's most respected businesses ground up, is unparalleled. I look forward to learning from him as we build one of the most impactful businesses out of India,' said Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola.
In December 2018, Ola had invested $100 million in Vogo, a scooter-sharing platform for short haul commute.