In fresh funding round, Ola raises $2 billion from Softbank, other investors: report

Cab aggregator Ola on Monday secured $2 billion in a fresh round of funding from a group of investors, including Japan based SoftBank Group Corp and Tencent Holdings Ltd, accoriding to a Bloomberg reported that cited source familiar with the matter.

The source also added that the amount could be higher as the funding has not been concluded yet. 

The report further stated that the funding was also backed by venture capital fund jointly run by Ratan Tata, the University of California's investment arm and US institutional investors.

Japan's SoftBank has been looking to play consolidator in India's flourishing startup ecosystem with investments that include about $1 billion in e-commerce company Snapdeal and $70 million in grocery delivery group Grofers.

However, Ola and SoftBank had not said anything over the latest buzz yet. 

Tencent's investment in the cab-hailing firm is part of its ongoing round of financing. Ola has managed to pick up investments worth $800 million since November 2016.

Earlier, in November 2016, SoftBank had invested $250 million in Ola.

The Bengaluru-based firm was aggressively looking at raising funds to compete with Uber, the world's most valuable start-up. After selling its Chinese business to Didi last year, Uber has now set sights on India making it one of its top priorities.

Though Indian Internet companies have seen a boom in user base, their valuations have come down as investors are now focussing on path to profitability and building a sustainable business model. Flush with private equity and venture capitalist money, many start-ups continue to have high burn rate that has been a concern for investors.