Uber gets funding from Ola's lead investor

Tiger Global invests in American cab aggregator even as Ola joins international anti-Uber coalition

New York-based marquee investor Tiger Global, which has funded several start-ups in India, has been in the news recently for getting cautious on writing big cheques. But the venture capital firm, which has powered the likes of Ola, Flipkart and Quikr, is again in the spotlight for a new addition to its portfolio. US-based taxi aggregator Uber is going for another round of funding—around $2.1 billion—and Tiger Global is one of the lead investors. The latest round of funding could hike Uber’s value to $62.5 billion.

Ola, Uber’s rival in India, had last month announced raising $500 million from a clutch of investors including Tiger Global. It, however, did not comment on the latest development. Uber too refused to comment. This is not the first time Tiger Global has funded two rivals in the red-hot taxi aggregator market. It already funds Didi Kuaidi, often referred to as China’s Uber, and GrabTaxi, Singapore’s popular brand.

Tiger Global’s alliance with Uber is believed to have upset a lot of other investors. Competition in this space is turning out to be doggy dog. Interestingly, reports on Tiger Global funding Uber have coincided with Ola joining a global alliance of companies that are in direct competition with the world’s largest ride-hailing service provider.

Four app-based ride-sharing service providers have forged an alliance in a bid to counter Uber’s growing global dominance. Apart from Ola, America’s Lyft, China’s Didi Kuaidi and Southeast Asia’s GrabTaxi have teamed up to offer users travelling overseas seamless access to rides via the same application they use back home. “This is an extension of the strategic partnership between Lyft and Didi Kuaidi, earlier in September,’’ Ola said in a statement. Together, these companies now cover nearly all of Southeast Asia, India, China and the United States, reaching nearly 50 per cent of the world’s population.

Replying to a question on the anti-Uber coalition in a recent Business Standard interview, Uber India head Amit Jain said, “Bring it on.”

Ola, which has raised $1.3 billion and is valued at around $5 billion, is estimated to have 80 per cent market share in India. Jain, however, had put Uber’s share at 40 per cent plus in the country.

When asked, analysts said, while the gap between the two is narrowing, market share of each player is yet to be verified.

Besides Tiger Global, Uber’s investor in the latest funding round would be T. Rowe Price, reports suggested. Before this, Uber had raised over $10 billion.