Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has invested about Rs 650 crore in Ola, giving the Indian ride-hailing company more ammunition to compete with rival Uber.
The investment is in Sachin’s personal capacity and is also the largest financing by an individual in Ola till date, Ola said in a statement.
In January, Ola had issued shares worth Rs 150 crore to Sachin as part of series J round of funding.
Sachin, who founded Flipkart over a decade ago with Binny Bansal, had quit after US retail behemoth Walmart picked up 77 per cent stake in the Indian e-commerce company for $16 billion.
“Ola is one of India’s most promising consumer businesses, that is creating deep impact and lasting value for the ecosystem,” Sachin said.
The investment is part of Ola’s plans to raise about $1 billion in funding. In October last year, the Bengaluru-based company had announced raising $1.1 billion funding from China’s Tencent Holdings and SoftBank Group.
It had also stated that it was in “advanced talks” to close an additional $1 billion funding to take total mop-up to more than $2 billion.
