Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal invests $21 M in Ola; has committed $100 M in total

Flipkart co-founder, Sachin Bansal has invested $21 million (approximately Rs 150 crore) in ride-hailing company Ola. This news comes within days after sources within Ola confirmed that the company was raising $2 billion and taking the valuation to $6 billion.

Apart from this, reports also suggest that Sachin has committed a total of $100 million to Ola, of which this $21 million is a part. The Bengaluru-based ride hailing aggregator has already raised $74 million led by Steadview Capital as a part of the round. The other rounds will be out in tranches.

“The larger $2 billion funding that we are raising will be deployed towards building the reach of electric vehicles, expanding and growing Foodpanda, and bringing in a stronger focus on international markets,” the source said.

The source confirmed that Ola had aggressive plans of expanding the electric vehicle's reach across the country.

In December last year, Sachin, along with former investment banker Ankit Agarwal, registered a non-government private company - BAC Acquisitions Private Limited. While the nature of its business is unclear, BAC Acquisitions appears to be a holding company.

After Walmart acquired Flipkart for $16 billion in 2018, making it the first successful exit for a startup unicorn, Sachin, Co-founder and the then Executive Chairman, left after selling his 5.5 percent stake for a reported $800 million-$1 billion.

It already looks like an interesting year for Ola. 2018 was all about international expansions and a focus on Foodpanda, the Rocket Internet-backed foodtech platform it acquired in December 2017. In 2017, Ola raised $1.2 billion funding led by Softbank and since then, has left no stone unturned to capture newer markets. Last year, it also forayed into international markets, starting with Australia and moving on to the UK and New Zealand.

Ola is already present across over 11 categories in 110 cities in India and claims to have over 125 million users in the country. The team claims to have over one million driver-partners in India and, on an aggregate basis, is said to be serving as many as a billion rides every year, through its platform.

Rival company Uber, on the other hand, filed for an IPO in December. The San-Francisco based giant confirmed its expansion plans for 2019, and said that it intends to strengthen its India operations by hiring an additional 500 engineers.