Uber’s Big India Rival After $500M In Funding

Just as Uber pushes deeper into India, its main rival in that country, Ola, is grabbing roughly $500 million, or even more, in capital from several investors.

In a series of reports from various financial trade publications earlier this week, at least $225 million of that $500 million tally had been secured, according to Mint. In a previous funding round, where Ola picked up $400 million in April, its valuation stood at $2.5 billion.

The initial reports of a $5 billion valuation came across several financial outlets, among them The Wall Street Journal, which noted that the company, owned by ANI Technologies, has gotten the funding from a slew of investors, including Japan’s SoftBank, Falcon Edge Capital, a new participant, and Tiger Global Management. The additional capital will be earmarked to expand operations. At present, the company operates in more than 100 cities and looks to log as many as 1 million rides daily, a milestone it expects to hit this month. Uber trails a bit, as that company does business in 22 cities and may not hit the 1 million daily ride mark until a year from now.

Ola said Monday (Sept. 14) that it would spend $75 million in a car leasing program that would get as many as 100,000 additional drivers onto its roster by the end of 2016 and would seek to invest as much as an additional $675 million in that leasing program, WSJ noted.

VentureBeat stated that the battle between the two companies continues apace in India, with Ola bringing new partnerships to bear with some of the nation’s largest eCommerce companies. That initiative has led the company to let more than 20 million users of the Ola Money eWallet buy items on partner platforms. In addition, the company is boosting its presence into auto-rickshaws, shuttle buses and other modes of transport.

[bctt tweet=”The battle between Uber and Ola continues apace in India.”]

[vc_row full_width=”” parallax=”” parallax_image=””][vc_column width=”1/1″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”” parallax=”” parallax_image=””][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_separator color=”grey” align=”align_center” style=”” border_width=”” el_width=””][vc_single_image image=”148412″ alignment=”center” style=”vc_box_shadow_3d” border_color=”grey” img_link_large=”” img_link_target=”_blank” css_animation=”left-to-right” img_size=”full” link=”http://www.pymnts.com/whats-hot-today/”][vc_column_text css_animation=””]

To check out what else is HOT in the world of payments, click here.

[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”grey” align=”align_center” style=”” border_width=”” el_width=””][/vc_column][/vc_row]