Vanguard Marks Up Ola’s Valuation For Quarter Ending February 2017

Just a day after reports surfaced that homegrown cab aggregator Ola’s parent company ANI Technologies’ losses increased 2X in FY16, the company has witnessed a slight increase in its valuation.

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.

Vanguard holds about 166,185 shares in the company. Previously, for the quarter ended November 2016, Vanguard had marked down the value of ANI Technologies by almost 40%, to $182.7 per share from $311.27 per share.

In the recent filings Vanguard said, “ANI Technologies, the Indian online taxi-hailing business known as Ola Cabs, fell in value after raising additional capital from SoftBank. While Ola has a market-leading position in India, it faces competition from Uber; for long-term growth, the company needs the resources of an investor like SoftBank.”

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, Vanguard Group headquartered in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania – has more than $4 Tn in assets under management. It reportedly offers more than 370 low-cost traditional funds and ETFs (exchange-traded funds) to more than 20 Mn investors worldwide. It is also an investor in Indian ecommerce giant Flipkart.

Last year in August 2016, Vanguard invested $50 Mn in Ola in December 2015, taking Ola’s valuation to $4.2 Bn.

Founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati in January 2011, to date, the company has raised total equity funding of $1.5 Bn in nine rounds from about 20 investors.

The most recent tranche came in March 2017 when the company raised $350 Mn from existing and new investors, at a valuation of $3.5 Bn. In April 2017, 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.

(The development was first reported by Financial Express)