India's Ola says Temasek, Warburg Pincus to pump in $500 million ahead of IPO

An employee speaks over his phone as a private security guard looks on at the front desk inside the office of Ola cab service in Gurugram, previously known as Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi, India, April 20, 2016. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee/Files

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian ride-hailing firm Ola, backed by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, said on Friday private equity firms Temasek and Warburg Pincus are investing $500 million in the startup ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO).

Ola did not give details on its IPO plans, but said that it continues to scale up its business across various categories and geographies.

"Over the last 12 months we have made our ride hailing business more robust, resilient and efficient. With strong recovery post lockdown and a shift in consumer preference away from public transportation," Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer Bhavish Aggarwal said in a statement.

Ola was hit hard last year when the pandemic-related lockdowns forced people to stay at home, forcing it to cut about 35% of its workforce and halting 95% of its business.

The company's latest round of funding comes at a time when prominent Indian startups are hitting public market through IPOs to cash in on a flush of liquidity by foreign funds and the country's new age retail investors, with 22 companies debuting so far in 2021.

Indian food delivery company Zomato said on Thursday it would price its 93.75 billion rupee ($1.26 billion) IPO in the range of 72 to 76 rupees per share.

One97 Communications Ltd, the parent of Indian payments firm Paytm, will file a draft prospectus as early as July 12 for a domestic market debut that seeks to raise $2.3 billion.

Reuters had reported https://reut.rs/3wxOrmW in 2019 that Ola was aiming to begin the process of IPO by March 2021.

($1 = 74.6100 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Rashmi Aich)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Click For Restrictions -
https://agency.reuters.com/en/copyright.html