Vanguard slashes Ola's valuation to $1.9 billion; down 74% from peak

Vanguard holds 1,66,185 shares of ANI Technologies, which account for about 0.7% stake in the ride-hailing startup led by Founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal. (Illustration: Moneycontrol)

US-based Asset Management Company (AMC) Vanguard has cut the fair value of ANI Technologies, the parent company of ride-hailing platform Ola, for the third consecutive time, latest regulatory filings showed.

With the recent markdown Ola is valued at around $1.9 billion which is 74 percent lower than its valuation of $7.3 billion commanded when it raised $139 million from IIFL, Edelweiss PE and others in December 2021.

With the fresh move, Vanguard has now cut Ola’s valuation three times in a row. In May last year, Vanguard said the company was valued at $4.8 billion and then again lowered Ola’s valuation to $3.5 billion in August 2023. The US-based AMC had lowered Ola’s valuation in 2020 and 2021 too.

The company did not immediately respond to Moneycontrol’s queries.

Vanguard holds 166,185 shares of ANI Technologies, which account for about 0.7 percent stake in the ride-hailing startup, according to data collated by Moneycontrol through Tracxn.

The series of markdowns come despite ANI Technologies narrowing its net loss in the fiscal year gone by. The company reported a net loss of Rs 772 crore in FY23 as against a loss of Rs 1,522 crore in FY22. At the same time, its consolidated revenue increased nearly 42 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,799 crore.

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Investors across the board have been readjusting startup valuations over the past few months. More recently, Invesco marked up Swiggy’s valuation to $8.3 billion, the second back-to-back increase, as reported earlier.

Last month, Fidelity cut Meesho’s valuation from $5 billion earlier to $4.1 billion, while Pine Labs was valued at $3 billion as of October 31, 2023, down from its valuation of $4.7 billion on August 31, 2023, as reported. 

It is important to note that these adjustments to fair values are typically based on AMC's internal assessment of the macro and microenvironment. They do not necessarily indicate a permanent markup or markdown in the startup's overall valuation.