Ola Electric raises $100 mn long-term debt for completion of phase 1 of EV factory

Ola Electric and Bank of Baroda on Monday signed a 10-year-long debt of $100 million towards the completion of Phase 1 of Futurefactory, a global manufacturing hub for its electric two-wheelers. The deal has been touted as the largest long-term debt financing agreement in the Indian EV industry. Ola in December announced that it will invest Rs 2,400 crore for setting up the Phase 1 of the factory.

"The agreement for long-term debt financing between Ola and Bank of Baroda signals the confidence of the institutional lenders in our plans to build the world's largest two-wheeler factory in record time," said Bhavish Aggarwal, Chairman & Group CEO, Ola.

"We are committed to accelerating the transition to sustainable mobility and manufacture made in India EVs for the world and we are happy that Bank of Baroda has joined us," he added. The Ola Futurefactory is coming up on a 500-acre site in Tamil Nadu. At full capacity of 10 million vehicles annually, it will be the world's largest two-wheeler factory, according to the company.

The soon-to-be-launched Ola Scooter will be manufactured at the Futurefactory, which will also serve as the global EV hub for Ola for its range of scooters and other two-wheelers.

"The government has brought in several policies to incentivise make-in-India and to enable India to become a global EV leader. Ola is leading from the front and we are delighted to partner with them for their EV business," said Sanjiv Chadha, Managing Director & CEO, Bank of Baroda.

Ola last week said that Temasek and Plum Wood Investment Ltd, an affiliate of global private equity fund Warburg Pincus have partnered with Ola founder Aggarwal for a $500 million investment, as the ride-hailing platform plans an IPO.

According to the company, this is among the largest investments in the Indian consumer internet space by these funds.Temasek has been an investor in Ola since 2018.