Ola Electric Mobility, the electric vehicle arm of Indian ride-hailing giant Ola, has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, it announced on Monday.
The investment is part of the company’s ongoing series A round of financing. In March, the electric mobility arm announced that it had raised Rs 400 crore from some of the Ola’s existing investors including New York-based hedge fund Tiger Global Management and venture capital firm Matrix Partners India.
Tata, was also one of the early investors in ANI Technologies, the parent of Ola.
“The electric vehicle ecosystem is evolving dramatically every day, and I believe Ola Electric will play a key role in its growth and development,” Tata said.
Last year, Ola had tied up with Mahindra to launch a pilot for electric vehicles in Nagpur in 2018. However, the project received a very lukewarm response from the drivers and some of them reportedly even returned the vehicles.
Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal, however, remains optimistic about Ola Electric’s future growth.
“Mr Tata has been an inspiration and a mentor to me personally in shaping Ola’s journey over the years,” Aggarwal said. “He is a visionary who has inspired a generation of entrepreneurs and we are privileged to have his guidance and support once again as we work towards our goal of a million electric vehicles in India by 2021.”
Ola is currently running several pilots involving charging solutions, battery swapping stations, and deploying vehicles across two, three, and four-wheeler segments.
It has also partnered with several original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and battery manufacturers, and plans to work closely with the automotive industry to create seamless solutions for electric vehicle operations.
Also Read:
Ola early backers Tiger Global, Matrix back startup’s EV unit with $56m funding