A regulatory filing by India’s ride-hailing giant Ola shows the company has a new valuation after raising $139 million ahead of its plans to file for an initial public offering (IPO) by early next year. The funding round was led by Mumbai-headquartered financial giant Edelweiss and saw the participation of other investors namely: IIFL, Siddhant Partners, Tejal Merchantile and Hero Enterprise.
The round comes on the heels of a Temasek and Warburg Pincus-led funding round the company had about five months ago where it raised $500 million in funding. The company’s co-founder and CEO had also reportedly participated in the round.
Apart from providing transportation services, Ola which is based in Bangalore offers vehicles for hire and food delivery services. Before the Coronavirus pandemic hit, the company was valued at $6.5 billion but saw its valuation drop to $3.3 billion after the pandemic which kept people at home, hit. Ola is also present in Australia and New Zealand which it expanded to in September 2018. It started operating in the UK in March 2019 and introduced rickshaws in the UK. Ola has more than a million drivers across all the countries it operates in.
Ola’s subsidiary Ola Electric also raised $52.7 million in a funding round led by Temasek, its regulatory filing revealed. The round also comes on the heels of a previous funding round held two months ago. Ola Electric broke out of its parent company in 2019.
Like other companies, Ola is affected by the global chip shortage. In August, it unveiled electric scooters and has delayed the delivery of these vehicles severally as a result of the problem caused by the chip shortage. It also faces other issues apart from the global chip shortage. In the past few months, it’s had key executives leave the company and the company was accused of having a toxic work culture. It is also facing competition from other brands. For example, mobility startup Bounce has launched its own electric scooters which are more affordable than Ola’s.
