Ola Electric raises $385 Mn from Temasek and State Bank of India

Electric vehicle manufacturer Ola Electric has raised Rs 3,200 crore ($385 million) in a funding round mix of equity and debt from Temasek-led marquee investors and State Bank of India (SBI).

The funds would be utilized towards expansion of Ola’s EV business and setting up India's first lithium-ion cell manufacturing facility in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, Ola Electric said in a press release.

Ola Electric will kick off its lithium-ion cell manufacturing facility with an initial capacity of 5 gigawatt hours in phase I which will be further scaled up in phases to 100 gigawatt hours at full capacity. 

Besides scooters, Ola has also introduced its motorcycle line-up scheduled to be launched by the end of next year. 

In the past couple of months, Ola Electric has raised money in multiple tranche. Temasek, Blue Investments, DIG Investments, Tiger Global, Tekne Private Ventures and Ashutosh Vinayak Joshi collectively have pumped in $300 million in the Bengaluru-based firm. Entrackr decoded this on October 7.

As per TheKredible estimates, the company has been valued at around Rs 44,410 crore or $5.4 billion post-allotment. This is a significant surge in valuation from $5 billion in January last year. 

With this, Ola Electric has raised more than $1 billion across equity and debt. 

According to startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, SoftBank is the largest external stakeholder with 23.6% followed by Tiger Global, Matrix, and others. Its founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal commands a 36.6% stake before Series E.

Last month, the company’s arch rival Ather Energy also raised $108 million from its existing backers GIC and Hero MotoCorp.

While Ola Electric is yet to file its annual report for FY23, the firm posted Rs 373 crore in operating revenue during FY22 as compared to Rs 0.86 crore in FY21. Manufacturing expenses and additional overhead costs resulted in a fourfold rise in losses, reaching Rs 784 crore in FY22.