Bengaluru, Nov 18 (IANS): Leading mobile application-based cab service provider Ola has announced raising $500 million (Rs.3,306 crore) to fund its expansion plans in India, including capacity building.
"The fresh investment will be used to fuel supply initiatives, capacity building and newer use cases," the company said in a statement here.
The sixth (series F) round of funding was led by venture firm Baillie Gifford and other venture firms Falcon Edge, Tiger Global, SoftBank group and DST Global participated.
"The additional funds will help us to spur growth and build mobility for a billion people," Ola co-founder and chief executive Bhavish Aggarwal said.
With a million bookings a day and 350,000 cars on its rolls, the Mumbai-based Ola operates in 102 cities across the country, offering cab services with incentives.
"We will also focus on building the ecosystem for our driver-entrepreneurs and enable more drivers to grow as entrepreneurs," Aggarwal asserted.
With the latest funding, the hi-tech-driven firm has cumulatively raised $1.3 billion so far, with $400 million in fifth round (series E) from DST and other venture partners in April, $210 million in fourth round (series D) from SoftBank and others in October 2014.
Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, Steadview Capital, Sequoia India, Accel Partners US and Falcon Edge are among its early investors.
According to a recent mobile intelligence study, the company's mobile applications (apps) are used by 78 percent of its customers across the country, including tier-two and tier-three cities.
Some of the apps are named Ola Share, Ola Prime and Ola Money and its options are 'Kaali-Peeli' taxis in Mumbai, auto rickshaws in six cities and yellow taxis in Kolkata.
"Our Ola Share app is on beta testing in Bengaluru for social ride-sharing option within their groups of choice," Aggarwal noted.
Aggarwal co-founded Ola with fellow IITian Ankit Bhati in January 2011, with an app to integrate city transportation for customers and drivers on a technology platform.
The apps are available on Windows, Android and iOS platforms for downloading.
Ola acquired Bengaluru-based cab aggregator TaxiForSure for $200 million (Rs.1,238 crore) in a cash and equity deal in March this year from its co-founders A. Radhakrishna and G. Raghunandan.
TaxiForSure operates in 50 cities across the country with 25,000 cabs registered on its platform as an aggregator.