Can new business routes take Ola closer to $12-bn valuation?

It’s hard to imagine how Bhavish Aggarwal feels right now. The two ventures he founded are on very different trajectories: one faces considerable headwinds, another the best conditions.

Ola, launched in 2010, became a market leader in mobility after 17 funding rounds and a bruising battle with competitors, mainly Uber. But the pandemic upended the ride-hailing sector, blunting Ola’s hard-earned advantage and slowing growth.

Four-year-old Ola Electric, in contrast, is one of the fastest startups in the electric vehicle (EV) space to raise capital and land a valuation of $2.7 billion (as of October 2021), according to regulatory filings. Media reports indicate the firm has hired bankers to raise an additional $1 billion.

Aggarwal has effectively seen both sides of fundraising. “It took him over a decade to build Ola. But just four years after launch, Ola Electric is already close to exceeding Ola’s valuation (at least in the secondary market),” said a person tracking Ola’s journey.

This is a crucial moment for Ola as it eyes momentum and a pickup in valuation ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO). To get there, it is diversifying to new and newish business areas:

• Pre-owned cars
• Grocery
• Food delivery

Ola’s parent company, ANI Technologies, is in talks to raise fresh funds at a valuation of $7 billion, two people briefed on the development told The CapTable. In July, Warburg Pincus and Temasek Holdings bought $500 million of Ola shares from existing investors Tiger Global and Matrix Partners India at a $3.8-billion valuation.