Ola, the India-based ride hailing service that counts a number of corporates among its investors, aims to begin initial public offering preparations by early 2021, Reuters reported on Friday.
The company intends to formally begin preparing to go public by the end of March 2021, people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters, adding that it had retained McKinsey & Company and EY as consultants.
Ola oversees an app-based on-demand ride platform with a presence in 110 cities across India, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. It claims to have 125 million customers and is shortly set to launch its service in London.
The work will involve the company cutting its staff, which numbers about 4,500, by roughly 5%, the sources said. It is in the process of raising series J funding and had accumulated approximately $542m as of July this year, and $2.6bn since being founded.
Carmakers Hyundai and Kia, Steadview Capital, Sailing Capital, China-Eurasian Economic Cooperation Fund, Lyon Assets, J3T Ventures, DIG Investment, Deshe Holdings, Samih Abdel Rahman, Hussam Khoury, Sachin Bansal, Raymond Cahnman, Tina Price and Steven Price have been named as investors in the series J round.
Ola received $1.1bn in a 2017 round led by a reported $400m investment from internet group Tencent and backed by telecommunications and internet conglomerate SoftBank, RNT Capital Advisors, Falcon Edge Capital and Tekne Capital Management.
SoftBank, Chinese ride hailing service Didi Chuxing, Baillie Gifford, Falcon Edge Capital, Tiger Global Management and DST Global had provided $500m in series F funding for the company two years earlier.
Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital, Accel, Vanguard Group, JS Capital, Parkwood Bespin, ABG Capital and Fii Ltr Focus Fund were all early investors in Ola, which was formerly known as Olacabs.
