Ola gets $350 million in fresh funding

Updated - January 13, 2018 at 01:12 AM.

Money to be used for driver training and tech upgrade

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Ola Cabs, which is battling an agitation by its driver-partners, has received a fresh lease of life, with existing and new investors pumping $350 million into the online cab aggregator.

The last time Ola Cabs received funding was in December 2015. It had then raised $57 million from the US-based Vanguard Mutual Funds.

Before the latest round, Ola, owned by ANI Technologies, had received $1.23 billion in funding from a clutch of investors, including Tiger Global, Softbank Capital and Sequoia Capital.

Sources in the company said that the fresh round of funding will be utilised in training the company’s drivers as well as to upgrade technology.

An Ola spokesperson, however, did not comment on the development.

Last November, Japanese investor Softbank said it had written down about $555 million as losses from operations in Ola as well as Snapdeal, an e-commerce company, which last week said it is shedding hundreds of employees in a cost-cutting exercise.

Per the latest available profit and loss details of Ola, the cab aggregator has posted a loss of ₹755 crore (in 2014-15) on revenues of ₹418 crore.

Rough ride

Both Ola and Uber have been battling a series of crises in their Indian operations because of agitations by drivers, who claim that they are not receiving remuneration and higher incentives.

The local governments have also banned share rides, which is one of the biggest revenue earners for these two cab operators.

Published on February 26, 2017 17:14