Homegrown cab aggregator Ola has received $400 million funding from Chinese internet major Tencent through its entity Copper Technology. The Singapore-based firm will now own a 9.57% stake in Ola according to filings with the Registrar of Companies, reports VCCircle.
Ola’s parent company ANI Technologies has issued shares to Copper Technology for Rs 13,521 apiece.
This deal will take the total capital mobilised by Ola in the last 12 months to $800 million and this investment from Tencent will be used by Ola primarily for its electric vehicle push, as per an Economic Times report.
This round of investment from Tencent will take Ola’s valuation to $4.1 billion, as per VCCircle’s calculations while media reports suggest that the valuation is at $3.8 billion.
The current investment could be part of the $2 billion round of funding Ola is raising from investors such as SoftBank Group, Tencent Holdings, Ratan Tata’s venture capital fund arm run jointly with the University of California’s investment arm and other US institutional investors.
Ola raised $250 million from SoftBank in November last year followed by $104.4 million from Falcon Edge Capital and UC-RNT and $36 million infusion from Tekne Capital Management.
Interestingly, Ola’s largest investor SoftBank, which holds nearly 30% stake in the company also announced an investment in Ola’s largest rival Uber, earlier this week.