After weeks of rumors, finally, today Ola has announced that it has acquired TaxiForSure, for $200 Mn in a cash and equity deal. This is biggest consolidation in the Indian tech-based cab booking space. With this deal, Ola, with over 1-lakh vehicles on its platform, has further deepened its footprint with TaxiForSure’s operator led model.
With this acquisition, investors in TaxiForSure will roll over their stock into Ola.
Founded by IIM-Ahmedabad graduates Aprameya Radhakrishna and Raghunandan G in June 2011, TaxiForSure currently has presence in 47 cities with over 15,000 vehicles registered on its platform. Post acquisition, Ola and TaxiForSure will continue to operate as separate entities. The leadership and all of the 1700 employees shall continue to work with TaxiForSure, with Arvind Singhal (currently COO) being appointed the CEO.
Aprameya Radhakrishna and Raghunandan G, will contribute in an advisory role for a certain period.
Related: TaxiForSure Co-Founders Likely To Step Down After Merger With Ola
TaxiForSure follows a different model of supply and distribution by working with cab operators compared to Ola’s model of working with driver-entrepreneurs. TaxiForSure has also focused heavily on the economy segment of cab consumers with innovative offerings like Tata Nanos as part of their fleet and INR 49 as base fares in the past. For customers, drivers and operators on the TaxiForSure platform, nothing will change. Customers can continue to book a cab through the app and call centre and drivers will continue to get access to customers on TaxiForSure’s technology platform as always.
Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO, Ola said
Ola and TaxiForSure share the same vision of revolutionising urban mobility. TaxiForSure has a great team and they have built a very exciting business in a short time. There’s a lot of complementary value in the strategy TaxiForSure has followed. I’m very excited to welcome the TaxiForSure team onboard and look forward to working with them towards realising our common vision.
Raghunandan G, Co-founder and CEO, TaxiForSure said
TaxiForSure coming together with Ola will provide us with more opportunity than ever, to do what we do best. Post this acquisition; the combined entity will be strong enough and better capitalized to offer the best value to all our stakeholders, including our customers. This development ensures that industry attractiveness is preserved and the combined entity can race ahead and continue to create unprecedented value for all stakeholders.
Ola was founded in 2011 by IIT Bombay graduates Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhat.Currently it is present in 67 cities and has received $277 Mn in five rounds. Ola has been funded by Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital, Steadview Capital and most recently, Softbank invested in it. There are also rumors that Yuri Milner’s investment firm DST Global is likely to invest about $400-500 Mn in Ola in a new round at a valuation of $2.5 Bn.
Investors in TaxiForSure are Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners.
This news comes in at a time, when Uber which is yet another player which pose a great competition to homegrown cab operators is in a situation where the Delhi government is planning to block its IP.
Merucabs, CarzOnRent’s EasyCabs, Taxipixi etc. are other players dealing in this space.
