Telecommunications firm SoftBank has invested $210m in India-based car rental and taxi aggregator Olacabs, the Economic Times reported on Saturday citing people familiar with the development.
The series D funding, secured at a valuation of almost $1bn, is being made as part of a sweeping investment plan in some of India’s largest online companies as it comes off the $25bn initial public offering of China-based e-commerce company Alibaba, another of its portfolio companies.
SoftBank made a $627m investment in e-commerce company Snapdeal today and is reportedly set to shortly announce a $300m investment in online payment service Paytm.
Founded in 2011, Olacabs operates as an online marketplace for all types of car and taxi rentals. It has 33,000 cars signed up for its service across 19 Indian cities and is currently entering a new city around once every two weeks.
The company has now raised more than $275m, with previous investors including Tiger Global Management, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital, Steadview Capital and Snapdeal founder Kunal Bahr, including $41.5m in July this year at a valuation of about $160m.