Ola raises $50 million from Tekne Capital, takes total funding to $2.4 billion

Cab aggregator Ola has raised $50 million (Approx Rs 322 cr) funding from NY hedge fund Tekne Capital Management. The recent funding from Tekne Capital takes Ola’s total capital raised to date to about $2.4 billion.

New York based Hedge fund – Tekne capital has infused around $50 million in Ola, the round also witnessed participation form Ratan Tata's venture fund RNT Capital Advisors and US hedge fund Falcon Edge. Ola is growing its set of investors to maintain the interest of its existing investors, said sources familiar with the development.

Cab aggregator has raised around $1.67 billion in previous funding rounds and its continue on momentum of raising the funds to capture the market share.

Last month, Ola has raised Rs 670 crore on lower valuation at $3 billion from $4-4.5 billion in 2015. It has decided to raise its next round on valuation around $3.65 billion and it will continue to raise the funding to capture the market.

Ola has covered the highest market share which is around 65%, with the same plans to expand in the market with varieties of services. Last month, Ola, launched a pilot project with more than 50 charging points across four locations in which it invested Rs 50 crore in electric vehicles and charging infrastructure. The vehicles will get charged at these stations. The cabs and rickshaws will need 1.30 hours to get charged and can travel 140 kms, the company said.

Ola will have a fleet of over 300 electric vehicles in Nagpur, which includes two 34-seater buses. Ola is present in 102 Indian cities and has more that 5,00,000 vehicles running on its platform.

To retain and acquire new customer, Ola has been burning a huge amount of cash to gain market share in its bid to outrun its competitor Uber. Recently, Uber fired its Asia Pacific head, Eric Alexander, for obtaining medical records of a woman who had been raped during a ride in India in 2014.

Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati founde Ola in 2010, Ola had previously raised money from marquee investors including SoftBank, Tiger Global and Matrix Partners.

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