US Investors Bullish On Ola, Add $15.6 Mn Top up To Series J Round

ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd owned ride-hailing company Ola is seeing some bullish investors in its portfolio, despite the ongoing heat among the policy-making bodies of India. Raymond S Cahnman, chairman of Transmarket Group; philanthropist Tina and Steven Price; J3T Ventures and Lyon Assets, have invested another $15.6 mn (INR 112 Cr) as part of the ongoing Series J round of funding, according to a Ministry of Corporate Affairs (M&CA) filings accessed by Inc42,

Last month (January), Ola raised Series J Funding of $74 Mn (INR 520 Cr) at $5.7 Bn valuation from its existing investor, a Hong Kong-and London-based hedge fund — Steadview Capital — through preference shares. Later, Flipkart cofounder Sachin Bansal also invested $21.2 Mn (INR 149.9 Cr) as part of its Series J round.

Ola is busy expanding its operations abroad. With Uber India doubling down on the Indian market, Ola looks to have enough liquidity in hand to continue giving a tough fight to its arch-rival both in the home as well as the international markets.

However, both Ola and Uber are currently standing on the opposite ends when it comes to their financial performance. As Inc42 reported earlier, Uber recorded an increase of 19.67X in its revenue from its India business — Uber India Technology — reaching $3.05 Mn (INR 21.5 Cr) in the fiscal ending March 2018.

But this revenue growth was on heels of increased expenses. Uber India’s total expenses for FY18 were $3.01 Mn (INR 21.26 Cr), as against $137.6K (INR 97 Lakh) in the previous year.

On the contrary, Ola controlled its losses by 42% in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018, reaching $400 Mn (INR 2843.69 Cr), as compared to $690 Mn (INR 4,898 Cr) loss in  FY17. Also, the company’s consolidated revenue increased by almost 61% reaching $313 Mn (INR 2,222.6 Cr) from $194.52 Mn (INR 1,380.7 Cr) in the previous year.

Moving ahead, while Uber is busy finding new avenues of revenue in India, Ola is looking to cut costs further. According to media reports, Uber has recently started with boat services in Mumbai. Also, in December 2018, the company claimed that its food delivery service UberEats has also grown seven times since August 2018.

Ola, on the other hand, is looking to control its costs further. The rumours are rife that Ola has more than halved its cash burn at Foodpanda. “Under the newly enforced changes, Foodpanda will focus on running the business more cost efficiently by focusing on its own private labels and cloud kitchens which include The Great Khichdi Experiment, Lovemade and FLRT brands, and continue to leverage Ola’s base,” Inc42 mentioned earlier.

Ola founders are among the few in the game who are still able to scale their companies as well as save it from the clutches of dominant foreign investors. With SoftBank having a significant stake in both Ola and Uber, for the time being, it claimed that the companies will face the same fate as Snapdeal or Flipkart. However, the pace at which both the companies are growing, the battle would certainly last longer.

[The development was reported by ET.]