An Ola investor said that they have not been approached by Uber for the sale of their stake in the company
A key investor of Ola dismissed reports of Uber buying a controlling stake of rival Ola and said that even if they are approached at anytime in the future, they have no intentions of selling to Uber.
In a response from Avnish Bajaj an early investor and board member of Ola and Managing Director of Matrix Partners India to dna said, "It cannot be further from the truth that Uber is attempting to take a stake in Ola. No such discussions have taken place and even if we are approached anytime in the future, we have no intentions of selling to Uber."
He further added, "We believe we are pulling away and continue to gain market share over Uber in India. With just one category like Ola Micro alone on its path to becoming larger than Uber, we can only see the momentum continuing to build in the same direction. We also hear this from employees who are leaving Uber for various jobs including wanting to work with Ola or other companies."
"We have seen Uber in India reacting to Ola’s growth with moves not seen elsewhere globally - be it front page advertising, dramatic fare cuts and rapid and knee jerk changes in categories - so one can only surmise that they are worried about their market share declining. We are clearly in the winning horse with Ola and have no doubts about its future," said Bajaj.
Earlier, it was reported that Uber was acquiring controlling stake in Ola and except for investor Softbank would acquire the stake of its promoters Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, would exit from the company.
When contacted by dna earlier, Ola executives and spokespersons neither denied nor confirmed the deal. An email sent by dna went unanswered till the time of going to press. When contacted, Anand Subramanian, senior director (marketing and communication), Ola, told dna he would get back after consulting his company officials but did not respond to calls made to him later.
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