Ola Electric, part of India’s largest ride-hailing company, has raised $250 million from SoftBank in a Series B financing round, according to a report.
The latest capital infusion means the company is now valued at more than $1 billion. The firm wants to scale its electric business, especially as India becomes more environmentally friendly.
India recently set a goal to make 40 percent of its fleet electric by the year 2026. Ola coincidentally has been developing electric car technology for the past few years. It currently has two- and three-wheeler vehicles across the country, and is making batteries that can switch out as well as charging stations.
The company had already raised about $56 million this year, and has a goal to get 10,000 electric vehicles on Indian roads by the end of 2019. It has been working toward eventually getting a million vehicles on Indian streets. Ola Electric’s parent group raised $300 million in a Series J round with investments from Kia and Hyundai to grow mobility options in the country.
Ola Electric – which has offices in New Zealand, Australia and the U.K. – is also the first electronic vehicle company in the country to gain unicorn status. Ola wants to set up shop in Uber HQ territory (San Francisco) as well.
“As we think of the next decade, we want to invest in and we want to be very relevant on the global scale business front, as well as building new-age, cutting-edge technology [that] impacts the new-age business model of the future, [and] there is no better place in the world to do it than here in the Bay area,” said Ola Co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal.
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