Russian tycoon, US firm pump $314 mn into Ola

India's largest taxi aggregator Ola has raised around $314 million (about Rs 1,884 crore) in a fresh round of funding from investors led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's DST Global and US-based Tiger Global, according to a regulatory filing.

India's largest taxi aggregator Ola has raised around $314 million (about Rs 1,884 crore) in a fresh round of funding from investors led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's DST Global and US-based Tiger Global, according to a regulatory filing.

The cab-hailing company faces huge competition from US rival Uber and home-grown cab operators such as Meru, and the new round of funding will further give it growth ammunition.

Private equity companies Accel Partners and Steadview Capital also invested in Ola's owner ANI Technologies, in the latest funding round, according to a filing with the Registrar of Companies.

The recent funding will take the total funds raised by Ola to around $590 million (Rs 3,500 crore). Last year, it had raised $210 million (Rs 1,260 crore) from Japan's SoftBank and a few existing investors.

However, Ola refused to confirm the latest round of funding.

The company, promoted by 29-year old computer science engineer Bhavish Aggarwal and his collegemate Ankit

Bhati, has been expanding into new markets.

Apart from taxis, Ola now also offers auto rickshaw services in several cities like Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Delhi, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.

Ola acquired smaller rival TaxiForSure for $200 million (Rs 1,200 crore), in March.

In an earlier interview, Aggarwal told HT that the company planned to have a presence in 100 cities, and would also invest significantly in driver ecosystem such as training centres and upgrading technology.

It is now present in 90 cities, where customers can book cabs via its smartphone app.