Ola founders are not interested in $1 billion investment from SoftBank according to media reports. Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal indicated that he might seek a lower funding figure to keep control of the company with the major stake.
Masayoshi Son has shown a keen interest in investing $1 billion in the ride-hailing company to increase its current stake of 26% in Ola. SoftBank is vigorously expanding its funded food tech platform FoodPanda.
However, the price is confronting hindrance and jealousy from Aggarwal. Softbank already holds 26 percent value stake in the organization and is eyeing to boost this number by 10-15 percent. Aggarwal, on the other hand, doesn’t want to recede the hands to Japanese tech investor.
Aggarwal is also looking to involve different shareholders in this round to limit the rising stakes of Softbank. It already has promised investments out of Sachin Bansal and existing investor Steadview Capital for approximately $200-250 million. Temasek is also slated to invest in the continuing round.
Going further, it remains to be seen how much SoftBank is eventually able to put money into the ride-hailing important, and how much Aggarwal’s moves to recede control with his allies fructify.
In June, Ola said that it has managed to make a profit from every ride booked on its platform in India. It’s now seeking to leverage its reach to explore categories in which the demand and supply requirements are similar.
Ola has launched its services in Australia, UK, and New Zealand, with offices in Bangladesh, under its global expansion plan. However, in India Ola has seen many troubles with regular driver strikes regarding incentives and payments.
Ola’s operating loss well widened 32 percent to $543.5 Mn (INR 3,731 Cr) in FY17, the company is aiming to become more profitable this season. Ola is looking to foray to the e-pharmacy section looking at it as a fast-growing chance when compared with the slowed down growth in the core business of cab aggregation.
