India-based, corporate-backed ride hailing platform Ola has raised $50m in funding from private equity firm Sailing Capital and Chinese state-backed vehicle China-Eurasian Economic Cooperation Fund, TechCrunch reported yesterday.
The two investors acquired a combined stake of just over 1%, with Ola achieving a valuation of approximately $4.3bn.
Originally called Olacabs, Ola operates an on-demand ride-hailing and food delivery service across its home market of India as well as Australia and the United Kingdom. The company also announced yesterday it was expanding to New Zealand.
Temasek acquired a stake of under 10% in Ola last month when it purchased $225m worth of shares in a secondary transaction. Ola has secured $2.4bn in funding to date, previously attracting $1.1bn in an October 2017 led by internet company Tencent.
Telecoms conglomerate SoftBank also backed the round, as did RNT Capital Advisors, Falcon Edge Capital and Tekne Capital Management.
SoftBank, ride hailing service Didi Chuxing, Baillie Gifford, Tiger Global Management, Falcon Edge and DST Global had supplied $500m in November 2015, after DST Global led a $400m series E round in April 2015 that featured SoftBank, Falcon Edge, Tiger Global, Accel, Steadview Capital and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC.
SoftBank had already supplied $210m in funding in 2014. Ola’s earlier backers include Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital, JS Capital, ABG Capital, Parkwood Bespin, Fii Ltr Focus Fund and Vanguard Group.