Ola Electric IPO: Decoding The EV Giant’s Shareholding Pattern & People At The Helm

Last week, Bhavish Aggarwal-led electric vehicle (EV) maker Ola Electric filed its draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for an INR 5,500 Cr initial public offering (IPO). 

With this, the startup is set to be the first full-fledged EV player to go public. 

The startup’s public issues comprises a fresh issue of INR 5,500 Cr and an offer-for-sale (OFS) component of up to 9.51 Cr shares. 

Besides the offering, Ola Electric’s DRHP also shed light on the startup’s organisation structure and the shareholding pattern. 

Founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Aggarwal is the single-biggest shareholder in the EV manufacturer, owning 136.1 Cr shares. This translates to 36.94% pre-offer equity share capital in the company on a fully diluted basis.

Taking the second spot on the list is SoftBank’s SVF II Ostrich fund, which owns 81.04 Cr shares, or 21.98% stake. Tiger Global’s Internet Fund III has a 6.03% stake, or 22.24 Cr shares, in the company, as per the DRHP.

Meanwhile, promoter group entities Ola Cabs’ parent ANI Technologies and Indus Trust account for 4.35% and 3.85% stakes, respectively. 

Other major institutional investors include Alpha Wave Ventures with 3.49% stake, followed by Matrix Partners India, which owns 3.51% stake in the original equipment manufacturer through its two funds. 

Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek, which led a $140 Mn funding round in Ola Electric in September 2023, owns 1.25% stake, or 4.6 Cr shares, in the EV company through MacRitchie Investments.

Similarly, Tekne Capital owns 0.99% stake in the company, while Nuvama Private Investments Trust accounts for 0.85% stake in the EV maker. 

Key People At Ola Electric 

At the top of the pyramid is Bhavish Aggarwal, who is the chairman and the MD of Ola Electric. An alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, he cofounded Ola Cabs in 2010 and currently also helms the ride-hailing major. Recently, he also jumped into the GenAI space with his newest venture Krutrim.

Next on the executive ladder is Harish Abichandani, who joined the EV startup as its chief financial officer (CFO) in December 2023. Another key managerial personnel (KMP) at Ola Electric is Pramendra Tomar, who currently serves as the startup’s company secretary and compliance officer. 

Both Abichandani and Tomar worked in various capacities at Ola Cabs’ parent ANI Technologies before joining the EV manufacturer. 

Other senior managerial personnel include Anshul Khandelwal, who is the chief marketing officer at subsidiary Ola Electric Technologies, while Hyun Shik Park is the chief operations officer of the startup’s another arm – Ola Cell Technologies. 

Meanwhile, Ola Electric also said that it saw five changes at the C-Suite executive level in 2023, including that of CFO and company secretary. While the startup did not explicitly state reasons for the change, the rejig was reportedly attributed to a new leadership taking charge of the company as it gears up for the IPO.

The startup also continues to be plagued by high employee attrition. The DRHP mentioned that Ola Electric’s employee attrition rate stood at 47.48% in the fiscal year ended March 2023. 

“Our employee attrition rate was 42.06% and 47.48% in the seven-month period ended October 31, 2023 (on an annualised basis) and Fiscal 2023, respectively,” read the draft prospectus. 

Despite these issues, Ola Electric appears well poised to leverage its full-fledged omnichannel distribution network, comprising 935 experience centres, including 414 service centres, at the end of October 2023, to increase its share in the Indian EV market.

Ola Electric has also been clocking healthy growth in two-wheeler registrations, which grew more than 14% month-on-month (MoM) to 27,331 units in November 2023 from 23,821 units in October.

Following the filing of the DRHP, all eyes would now be on SEBI’s approval. Ola Electric’s IPO is expected to be among the most awaited new-age tech IPOs next year.