Flipkart Co-Founder Sachin Bansal Invests Rs 650 Crore in Ola

The Flipkart co-founder becomes the largest individual financier in the Indian cab-hailing brand.

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. This comes after Ola had already issued shares worth Rs 150 crore to Sachin as part of a 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 a 77 percent stake in the Indian e-commerce company for $16 billion.

Thrilled to be part of this journey with @bhash and the @Olacabs team. Ola is a household name today and is a global force in the mobility ecosystem. Their success is important for all of us and I’m excited about the vision they are building towards. https://t.co/xhxKL2i72L

— Sachin Bansal (@_sachinbansal) February 19, 2019

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 the total mop-up to more than $2 billion.

"Ola is one of India's most promising consumer businesses, that is creating deep impact and lasting value for the ecosystem," Sachin said.

Ola is locked in a battle for market leadership with US-based rival Uber in India and other markets like Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

The Indian company has been aggressively ramping up its rides business as well as hailing platform and food delivery operations (through Foodpanda). Diving into multiple segments is a big challenge and this is where investments from all these industry giants will keep it running.

In addition to its local journey, Ola also caters to consumers in countries like the United Kingdom and Australia, with more regions likely to be added in the coming years. It also has ambitious plans to go electric with its cab fleet in some parts of the Indian market.

We are extremely thrilled to have Sachin onboard Ola as an investor. Sachin is an icon of entrepreneurship and his experience of building one of India’s most respected businesses ground up, is unparalleled.

Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO, Ola

(With PTI inputs)