Ola Electric promoter pledges 2.43% stake to secure debt for Krutrim

Ola Electric’s promoter has pledged 10.71 crore shares, or 2.43% of the company’s equity capital, to raise funds for Krutrim Data Centre, according to a stock exchange filing. The pledged shares account for 8.09% of the promoter’s holdings in the EV maker.

The pledge, created in favour of Axis Trustee Services on behalf of Avendus, InCred and India Credit Opportunities funds, replaces an earlier non-disposal undertaking (NDU) disclosed in December 2024 and March 2025.

Ola said the NDU over these shares will be released once the pledge process is completed. The development comes months after the expiry of lock-in over a portion of promoter shares under SEBI’s listing rules.

Krutrim has raised approximately $75 million and joined the unicorn club in January 2024. Its investors include Z47 (formerly Matrix), the Sarin Family, and others. Krutrim was reportedly in talks to raise $300 million in a new funding round. However, the company denied it officially.

Last week, Krutrim laid off around 50 employees from its linguistics team in its third round of job cuts since June. In total, more than 200 employees have left the company so far this year, including leadership exits. 

Krutrim’s AI products, including Krutrim Cloud and its large language model offerings, have yet to gain traction due to technology gaps. Meanwhile, the firm is working on its largest language model, Krutrim 3, which will be a multibillion-parameter model.