South African internet giant Naspers is in talks with Ola’s parent company ANI Technologies at a valuation of $7-8 billion, according to a report by Mint.
The ride-hailing company is also in talks with Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and two other funds to raise $1 billion in fresh capital, the report said.
While talks have not reached the final stages, Ola’s valuation may nearly double from the current valuation of $4 billion, if the proposed round of funding goes through, the report added.
However, the proposed round of funding may face hurdles because of a boardroom tussle between Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bhavish Aggarwal and SoftBank and Tiger Global, the report added.
As per the report, Aggarwal had blocked a proposed sale of shares by Tiger Global to SoftBank last year in a bid to stop the Son-led Japanese company from raising its stake. Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
The funding is being sought at a time when the ride-hailing firm is not only trying to beef up its core business in the country against rival Uber, but also build food-tech operations and compete with other Indian start-ups such as Zomato and Swiggy.
In December last year, Ola had bought the Indian arm of Foodpanda from its German parent company Delivery Hero to compete in the online food delivery space. Ola had said it would invest $200 million into the food-delivery company in a bid to expand its operations.
