Ola, the homegrown ride-hailing giant, has been faced with the fears of a down round for a while as it has been unable to secure any funds for over a year now. Viewing its fading position in the market, US-based investment firm Vanguard Group has slashed the valuation of its stake in cab-hailing service Ola. Vanguard marked down the valuation by 40 percent, indicating downfall of country’s imminent unicorn startups.
According to a regulatory filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the investment firm valued Ola at a minimal $3 billion. Previously, Ola’s parent ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd was valued at $5 million by the Vanguard World fund, thus, adding up to decline of 40 percent. The cab aggregator’s last capital raise was back in November 2015, when it raised a sum of $500 million.
Thus, shares of Ola have now been valued at $311.27/share in the previous quarter which came down to $182.7/share as per the filings of the November quarter. Though both the figures belong to different funds (Vanguard Variable Insurance Funds and Vanguard World Fund), the funds own a common stock in Ola. Presently, the investment bank holds 166,185 shares in Ola which are valued at $30.37 million.
Late in 2016, Ola had initiated talks with investors to raise a massive sum of $300-400 million, though there have been no been updates on the fund raise as of now.
Other known investment for the Vanguard group includes Flipkart, yet another promising unicorn from the country. The investment fund marked down the value of Flipkart shares by a massive 33%back in September. Figures stated valuation of shares from $102.6 in June’16 to $68.7 per share for the quarter ended September’16. The U.S-based mutual fund, hence, brought down the Indian e-commerce behemoth’s valuation down to $7.6 billion from the previous $11.4 billion.
Uber which is an arch rival for homegrown Ola sees India as one of its key markets for growth. Currently, the ride-hailing company is stuck in hassles to shutter its carpooling services in Karnataka. The company is also building up its team and technology so as to keep up pace. The company keeps on offering deep ride discounts and is further planning aggressive expansion in the country.
We’ve contacted Ola for a comment on the valuation markdown and will update you once we hear back from them.
