New Delhi:
Ola, the Indian origin online transportation network company is in talks with automobile manufacturer Hyundai Motor Company for investing about USD 300 million in the cab-hailing platform. As per the latest reports, the discussions are at an advanced stage and a deal could be stamped in the next few weeks. If the deal goes through, it would be Hyundai's second investment in the Indian start-up ecosystem. Previously, it had led an Rs 100-crore funding round in car rental start-up Revv.
Though Ola did not respond to an e-mailed query on the development, a Hyundai Motors India spokesperson said that the company is "open to cooperation with various potential partners but it is our policy not to comment on market speculation and rumours".
The fresh funding will give Ola more ammunition to compete with rival Uber in India and other markets like Australia, New Zealand and the UK. In February, Ola had announced that Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has invested about Rs 650 crore in the company. The investment was in Sachin's personal capacity and was also the largest financing by an individual in Ola.
Bansal's investment was part of Ola's plans to raise about USD 1 billion in funding. In October last year, the company had announced raising USD 1.1 billion funding from China's Tencent Holdings and SoftBank Group. At that time, it had also stated that it was in "advanced talks" to close an additional USD 1 billion funding to take total mop-up to more than USD 2 billion. Ola has been aggressively ramping up its rides business as well as food delivery operations (through Foodpanda).
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor India is also gearing up to launch its all-new subscription model in six cities across the country as part of its partnership with self-drive car-sharing firm Revv. Hyundai Subscription aims to provide an opportunity to the customers to experience Hyundai product portfolio, with hassle-free ownership, flexibility and limited commitment through subscription-based ownership model. Hyundai had joined hands with Revv last year.
With the company's deep understanding of Indian consumers and progressive tech-driven mobility solutions, Hyundai aims to forge a new market for the new-age Indians.
The shared mobility space is evolving at an exponential rate, from USD 900 million in 2016 to USD 1.5 billion in 2018, it is projected to expand to USD 2 billion by 2020. India's 15,000 car-sharing vehicles are expected to grow to 50,000 by 2020, and 150,000 by the year 2022.
