Ola, Ola Electric bags fresh funds from a clutch of investors

IPO-bound ride-hailing major Ola has raised about $139 million (Rs 1,048.6 crore) from a clutch of investors including IIFL, Edelweiss, and Sunil Munjal-led Hero Enterprise, according to regulatory filings shared by business intelligence firm Tofler.

As per the filings, Ola has allotted 4,63,471 Series J1 Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares (CCPS) at a premium price of Rs 22,625 per share, in what appears to be a pre-IPO financing round.

While Edelweiss has invested about Rs 250 crore, IIFL has pumped in Rs 187.5 crore and Hero Enterprise has invested about Rs 112.5 crore. Ola has also allotted shares worth Rs 100 crore to former Zandu promoters Parikh family and Siddhant Partners while shares worth Rs 50 crore have been allotted to Biovet, an animal health vaccine producing firm.

Famy Care Group's Ashutosh Taparia and Sanjeev Taparia have also been allotted shares worth Rs 13 crore apiece while Vicco Group have been allotted shares worth Rs 10 crore. Inc42 first reported this development. The round values the firm at an estimated $7.3 billion.

This financing comes after the Bengaluru-based firm had raised $500 million financing led by private equity giants Temasek and Warburg Pincus in July this year. Ola is also eyeing $500 million debt financing through a Term Loan B route, joining the likes of Byju's and Oyo.

Ola has also completed the acquisition of GeoSpoc, a Pune-based provider of geospatial services, for Rs 26 crore.

The firm had announced this acquisition on October 5. As part of this deal, GeoSpoc cofounder Dhruva Rajan and his team of scientists and engineers had joined Ola to develop technologies that will make mobility accessible, sustainable, personalised, and convenient across shared and personal vehicles, the company had said at the time of acquisition.

In a separate development, Ola Electric has also raised about Rs 398.3 crore from investors such as Temasek, IIFL, Edelweiss, Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s VSS Investco and DST Global's Rahul Mehta. The firm allotted a total 371 shares at Rs 1.07 crore each.

Temasek invested Rs 185 crore, while Edelweiss put in Rs 111.6 crore and IIFL invested Rs 74 crore. Bollywood personalities such as Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani, Zoya Akhtar, Amrita Arora Ladak and her husband Shakeel Ladak (Azara Advisors) have also been allotted shares in the company.

Ola Electric, which was spun out of the ride-hailing major Ola in 2019, had previously raised $200 million financing led by Falcon Edge, SoftBank and others, at a valuation of $3 billion in September this year.

This comes at a crucial point for Ola Electric, which is racing against time to deliver scooters to customers. While it has sold nearly Rs 1,200 crore worth of scooters, it has faced heat from customers over the delay in the delivery date of its scooters.

The company is now planning to start the first batch of deliveries from December 15, a significant delay from its initial plans of an October delivery timeline.

Ola has also witnessed a spate of exits in recent weeks, including its Chief Financial Officer Swayam Saurabh, Chief Operating Officer Gaurav Porwal, General Counsel Sandeep Chowdhury, and Ola Electric's Head of Quality Assurance Joseph Thomas among others.

Meanwhile, the firm has once again taken the plunge into online grocery delivery with the launch of its services across Mumbai and Bengaluru with almost 15 dark stores, Moneycontrol reported in November this year.