The Indian tech-based cab booking space is going to witness one of the biggest consolidation soon. As, if reports are to be believed, Ola is acquiring Taxiforsure for about $200 Mn.
India’s taxi market, estimated at over $10 Bn in size, is largely unorganized. This acquisition will make Ola a clear leader in the online cab booking space and the combined entity will give a tough fight to private cab booking startup Uber.
According to people close to the development, Ola will pay cash and offer stock, this acquisition will be the second-largest buyout in the consumer Internet market after Flipkart’s acquired Myntra for over $370 Mn.
The term sheet has been signed and in the next 10 days the finer details will be chalked out,” said one of the sources.
TaxiForSure was founded by IIM-Ahmedabad alumni Aprameya Radhakrishna and Raghunandan in 2011. The company has raised more than $60 Mn till date and has been looking for raising new funds.
The company had raised $30 Mn in Series C round of funding led by Accel Partners US, Accel India, Bessemer Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners in August last year, and $10 Mn Series B round from Bessemer Venture Partners.
With this deal, its investors may also get Ola stocks.
According to a source, TaxiForSure, has also raised a bridge round of $6 Mn from its existing investors Accel Partners India, Helion Venture Partners and Accel Partners US, among others just two weeks back, this round valued the four-year-old company at about $125 Mn.
On the other side, recently Ola has expanded to over 24 cities taking it services to 50+ cities in the country. According to the company, its has now 60,000 cabs across the country. The company is adding 1000 cabs on its platform every and has plans to expand its services in 200+ services during 2015.
Ola had raised $210 Mn from SoftBank and its existing investors, Tiger Global, Matrix Partners India and Steadview Capital last year in October.
Founded in 2011 by IIT Bombay graduates Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhat, Ola had raised $20M in Series B and $5M in it’s Series A round in 2013 and 2012 respectively.
Merucabs, CarzOnRent’s EasyCabs, Taxipixi etc. are other players dealing in this space.
