India’s homely grown, Bengaluru based Cab King, Ola (ANI Technology Pvt. Ltd) got almost $2 billion funding from a Japanese amalgamated SoftBank and WeChat Parent organization Tencent. The investment would provide Ola a post-money valuation of $3.8 billion.
Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati started India’s locally grown cab service named ‘Ola’ on 3rd Dec 2010. Ola used a mobile-based platform app, which integrated city transportation for its riders and through driver partner based system. Ola is using technology to ensure convenient, quick, transparent and hassle free transportation service for everyone.
Ola has a nationwide presence, reaching over to 102 cities for its booking services and provides affordable AC cab service ranging from Ola Micro to superior luxury offerings such as Ola Lux, along with the addition of Ola Auto service in 2015.
Ola completes 1.5-million rides per day in India just ahead of its rival Uber, which is completing 1.3-million rides per day according to report of August month. According to Cheetah Lab report, Ola is ranked top in mobile ride-hailing application (App) in terms of reach among different mobile-based cross-platforms such as Android, iOS, Windows phone etc., for the month of July 2017.
The investment of Tencent, of $400 million, has been completed and it will help Ola to develop or boost a sizable portion in electric vehicle segment. The paper work for the transaction has been done and they are awaiting approval from CCI.
The $2 billion investment will help Ola to strengthen and develop its footprints over the geographical regions of India. They will expand their business by hiring new Drivers and Ola vehicle partners for its services. It’s also expected to make investments in new cash infusion based technology services. A commendable comment was also given by Bhavish Aggarwal, “We have significantly improved our bottom-line over the past years and we now have a very clear pathway to profitability within the next two years”.
