New Delhi: Cab aggregator Ola has invested Rs100 crore in its car leasing subsidiary, Ola Fleet Technologies.

The investment comes at a time when the homegrown firm is locked in an intense battle with US-based Uber for leadership in the Indian market.

The proposal for Ola investing Rs100 crore into Ola Fleet Technologies was accepted by the board of the car leasing arm last month, as per documents filed with the corporate affairs ministry.

The SoftBank-backed Ola had invested Rs50 crore in the unit in February this year. Ola did not reply to an emailed query in this regard.

In 2015, Ola had announced setting up of a captive leasing subsidiary to finance cars to be added to its platform and had announced an investment of Rs5,000 crore. Through Ola Fleet Technologies, the Bengaluru-based firm focuses on building its own fleet and skilling drivers. Under the programme, drivers could lease a car for a minimal initial deposit and then pay monthly lease payments with an option to own the vehicle after a period of three years.

Interestingly, Ola Fleet posted a loss of Rs13.3 crore for FY16 compared to a profit of Rs3.9 crore in the previous year.

Ola, for its own business, posted a consolidated loss of over Rs2,311 crore — about Rs6 crore a day —during fiscal 2015-16. However, despite the losses, SoftBank pumped in fresh funding to the tune of Rs1,675 crore into Ola in April this year.

Ola has raised close to $2 billion investments from investors like Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, Steadview Capital, Sequoia India, Accel Partners US and Falcon Edge.

Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

Share Via