Ola cabs signs accord for $210-mn fund from SoftBank

Bangalore, Oct 28 :

Ola, the mobile application for booking cabs in India, Tuesday said it has signed an accord to raise $210 million from Japan’s SoftBank and its existing investors like Tiger Global, Matrix Partners India and Steadview Capital.

Founded in January 2011 by two alumni of Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola offers car rentals from the fleet of its partners through its mobile platform, web site and call centres.

Formerly called Ola Cabs, the company took its operations to nine new cities in the past six months, taking its overall presence to 19 Indian cities. Some 33,000 cabs are today available for customers across these cities, the company said.

“This fresh investment led by SoftBank will further propel Ola to be an integral part of India’s transportation ecosystem across newer cities by making available an efficient, reliable and convenient option for users and service providers,” the company said.

Coinciding with the India visit of Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive of SoftBank, the Japanese major has committed $10 billion investment in India over the next few years. It has also signed an agreement to invest $627 million in e-retailer Snapdeal.

With a market cap of $92 billion, SoftBank is one of the largest players in the telecom and Internet investment space. It already has made investments in many Indian companies like InMobi and Hike.

(IANS)