Ola raises Rs 231 crore from Tekne Private Ventures

SoftBank-backed cab aggregator Ola has raised over Rs 231 crore from Tekne Private Ventures through the issue of preference shares.

The deal involves allotment of 171,173 fully and compulsorily convertible preference shares for a total consideration of Rs 231.44 crore, according to the company's regulatory filings with the corporate affairs ministry.

About 1.23 lakh shares were allotted to US-based Tekne Private Ventures III LP for Rs 167.15 crore and 47,548 shares worth Rs 64.28 crore were issued to Tekne Private Ventures I Master from the Cayman Islands.

The said shares were allotted on June 7, 2017, the documents showed.

An e-mail query sent to Ola remained unanswered.

ANI Technologies, which runs Ola, is not a publicly-traded company.

In May this year, Ola had raised Rs 670 crore ($104.4 million) in funding from investors, including UC-RNT Fund, a venture between the University of California and Ratan Tata, along with FO Mauritius I Ltd.

Ola is locked in an intense fight with US-based Uber for market leadership. It has raised investments from the likes of SoftBank Group, Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, Steadview Capital, Sequoia India, Accel Partners US and Falcon Edge.

While Ola has been successful in raising a sizeable amount of funds, it continues to bleed on account of heavy advertising, promotional expenses and high employee cost.

The company ran up a consolidated loss of over Rs 2,311 crore — about Rs 6 crore a day — during 2015-16.

Ola saw its revenues registering a stellar growth at Rs 758.23 crore during 2015-16 compared to Rs 103.77 crore in the previous financial year.

Ola, which has a presence in over 100 Indian cities as against Uber's operations in 29, has been aggressively ramping up its portfolio of services.