Ola Raises $104 Mn From Falcon Edge Capital, Ratan Tata’s RNT Capital

Bengaluru-based cab aggregator Ola has further raised $104.4 Mn (INR 670 Cr) in Series I from US-based hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital and Ratan Tata’s RNT Capital, as per recent regulatory filings with the Registrar of Companies.

The company has issued 495,526 shares at INR 13,521 per share. The shares issued are ‘fully and compulsorily convertible, cumulative preference shares’. The share price is a bit higher than the INR 12,905 price at which it raised its last funding of INR 1,675 Cr. from SoftBank Group Corp.

An email sent to Ola did not elicit a response at the time of publishing this story.

Just yesterday, it was reported that as per recent filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, US-based Vanguard Group’s Vanguard World Fund marked up the value of its investment to $187.5 per share as on February 28, 2017, in ANI Technologies. The fund had marked ANI’s shares at $182.7 per share, as on November 30, 2016.

Recently, it was reported that Ola’s parent company ANI Technologies’ losses increased 2X in FY16.

Last month, it was reported that Ola has been in talks to raise a $100 Mn funding. RNT Capital Advisors, a $300 Mn venture fund set up by Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata, will be leading this round, investing around $60 Mn. The remaining amount will be infused by existing investor Falcon Edge Capital.

While RNT Capital has invested about $41.78 Mn (INR 267.9 Cr), an affiliate of US-based hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital has invested $62.7 Mn (INR 402 Cr), as per Ola’s filings with the Registrar of Companies.

Founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati in January 2011, to date, the company has raised total equity funding of $1.6 Bn in nine rounds from about 20 investors. The most recent tranche of funding came in March 2017 when the company raised $350 Mn from existing and new investors, at a valuation of $3.5 Bn.

However, later in April 2017, it came to light that in November 2016, ANI Technologies had secured $260 Mn (INR 1675 Cr) from its largest stakeholder SoftBank Group. SoftBank facilitated the investment via its subsidiary arm, SIMI Pacific Pte Ltd, in Ola’s parent company ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

As per a company statement, the Bengaluru-based cab aggregator allows users across 102 cities to book from over 5,00,000 vehicles across cabs, auto-rickshaws and taxis. The aggregator also provides shared mobility services on its platform like Ola Shuttle and Ola Share for commute and ride-sharing respectively.

(The development was first reported by VCCircle)