Indian ride-hailing major Ola is planning to raise over US$1 billion in multiple tranches of equity and debt in the coming months ahead of an anticipated big bang initial public offering (IPO) in 2022.
The Bangalore-based company recently raised over 10.49 billion rupees ($139 million) from Edelweiss Private Equity and a clutch of other investors to boost its valuation to over $7 billion. Other investors include Siddhant Partners, IIFL, Tejal Merchantile, Hero Enterprise, Vicco Laboratories, Alka DP Family Trust, and Atul DP Family Trust, among others.
Earlier in July, Ola raised $500 million from Singapore’s Temasek, Warburg Pincus and company co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal. Founded in 2011 by Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola is estimated to have raised over $4 billion in funding so far.
The company currently offers cab-hailing services in over 250 cities in India, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
For the forthcoming fundraising, Ola will be reportedly be valued at around $7.5 billion. The company is also seeking to raise $500 million via a term loan from global institutional investors.
Ola is expected to go public next year and will likely seek to raise anywhere between $1-2 billion the IPO. Earlier this year, Aggarwal said the company will go public in 2022 but did not provide any firm details.
An initial stock sale will help Ola investors like SoftBank, Tiger Global, and Steadview Capital to exit or partially sell their stake in the company to return funds to their shareholders, market analysts say.
The company has also forayed into manufacturing electric scooters, and Ola Electric is expected to begin deliveries from December 15. Its manufacturing facility is located at Hosur in Tamil Nadu state and has the capacity to produce 10 million electric scooters a year.
Ola is growing in various potentially profitable directions. It recently launched new units Ola Store, for quick grocery deliveries, and Ola Car, for used-car sales.