Ola to raise $36 million from existing investors

Cab-hailing company Ola will soon raise an additional $36 million from its existing investors, according to a VCCircle report.

The report, which is based on the filings of Registrar of companies, stated that Ola will issue 171,733 shares with a nominal value of Rs 10 and a premium value of Rs 13,511 apiece, taking the total subscription price to Rs 13,521.

In the past few months, Ola has been raising continuous funds from different investors to take on its deep-pocket rival Uber.

Since January, it has raised around $400 million from Softbank, Falcon Edge Capital and Tekne Capital, taking the total funding to $2.4 billion.

In June this year, the cab-hailing firm raised $50 million from New York-based hedge fund Tekne Capital. In May, it had raised $104.4 million from Falcon Edge Capital and Ratan Tata’s RNT Capital Advisers on the subscription price of Rs 13,521. In April, the app-based firm raised $250 million from its largest investor SoftBank.

According to media reports, Ola is in talks with Microsoft and Tencent to raise another round of funding from them.

In a game to control the market, which is largely being played with money, the app-based cab-hailing company Ola wants to leave no stone unturned to take on rival Uber.

In its battle against Uber, owing to increased spending, the company’s loss has also widened. In FY16, Ola’s losses stood at Rs 2,311.7 crore as against the loss of Rs 899.7 crore in FY15. However, its operating revenue jumped to Rs 438.6 crore from Rs 57.5 crore over the same period.

Since early this year, Ola has been continuously changing its strategy and working hard to remain relevant in the market.

Recently, it announced ramp up of expansion of its content platform Ola Play and is pushing electric vehicles in its fleet, which will be the two major differentiators from its rival business Uber.