India-based ride-sharing service Ola is raising a series F round of at least $500m featuring telecoms firm SoftBank, TechCrunch reported earlier today.
The company has secured $225m so far, according to a regulatory filing, and is expected to close the round within a fortnight.
Apart from SoftBank, the investors who have committed capital are Falcon Edge Capital, which leads the round, Tiger Global Management, Steadview Capital, ABG Capital, Fii Ltr Focus Fund, JS Capital, Parkwood Bespin and private investor Daniel Neary.
Established in 2011, Ola was originally known as Olacabs. The company operates a platform for taxi services and car rentals, and recently also added a car leasing service as well as shuttle services.
Ola is valued at approximately $5bn for the round, double its valuation for the $400m series E round closed in April 2015. The series E round was led by DST Global, and included SoftBank, GIC, Falcon Edge, Tiger, Steadview and Accel.
SoftBank also invested $210m in October 2014.
In total, Ola secured more than $675m ahead of the series F round. Its shareholders also include Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital, and angel investors Kunal Bahr and Yuri Milner.
The news of Ola’s latest round follows yesterday’s revelation that Didi Kuaidi had backed Lyft’s $680m series E round earlier this year. Meanwhile, last week Didi Kuaidi secured $3bn and Uber China obtained $1.2bn.