Ola has been on top of the world ever since its electric scooters came out on Independence Day. Now, the company is gearing up for exponential expansion, as it has reportedly selected banks led by Citigroup and Kotak Mahindra Bank to manage its initial public offering (IPO). Additionally, its electric two-wheeler manufacturing arm Ola Electric is said to be working to raise between $250 million to $500 million ahead of the IPO, for which the company is looking to an October deadline.
Ola has ambitious plans to raise about $1 billion in its IPO as well as a valuation of over $8 billion, the report from TechCrunch said.
If the reports of the IPO filing are true, the Bengaluru-headquartered Ola will join a healthy club of Indian start-ups that have chosen to go public this year. Some of the names in this club are fintech powerhouse Paytm, edtech giant Byju’s, advertising major InMobi, gaming company Nazara, e-commerce giant Flipkart, and the most stellar of them all, Zomato. However, the timeline and size of Ola’s IPO have not been finalized yet as the talks are still ongoing.
Partnering with nearly 1.5 million drivers across 250 cities in India, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K, the country’s largest mobility platform had in July raised $500 million from investors including Temasek Holdings Pte and an affiliate of Warburg Pincus (one of the largest investments in the Indian consumer internet sector). It is one of the strongest rivals of Uber and is known to offer mobility solutions by linking customers to drivers and a wide range of vehicles.
Coming to the funding round in Ola Electric-the company’s venture into the field of electric vehicles, Falcon Edge Capital is in advanced talks to lead the round, while Singapore’s Temasek is also expected to participate. Ola Electric recently launched the much-anticipated electric scooters, the Ola S1 and S1 Pro, starting at ₹99,999 and ₹1,29,999 respectively. It currently competes with names such as Ather Energy, Hero Electric, Revolt, and TVS and is one of the key players in the Indian EV market, which is slated to grow in the coming times as the necessity of clean energy and electric two-wheelers and four-wheelers becomes more mainstream.
