Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s investment firm DST Global has held talks with Indian cab booking service Ola to invest $400-500 million (approximately Rs 3,000-crore) in a financial round at a valuation of $2.5 billion.
Ola was founded by IIT-Bombay batchmates Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati. The company has services in 50+ cities in the country and 60,000 cabs across the country.
In October 2014, Ola Cabs had raised $ 210 million from Japan’s Softbank Corp. If the deal is finalized, it will be DST’s second investment in Indian domestic consumer internet market. Also, Milner already has a personal investment in Ola.
Ola’s biggest competitor, the San Francisco-based taxi-hailing app Uber, which is valued at over $40 billion.
