Ola in talks with Temasek, Naspers, others to raise $1 bn
BENGALURU: South African internet conglomerate Naspers is in talks to invest in ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which owns ride hailing company Ola, at a valuation of $7-8 billion, said three people familiar with the development.
Besides Naspers, Ola is also in talks with Singapore’s Temasek and two other funds to raise $1 billion in fresh capital, the people cited above said, requesting anonymity.
Ola, which is currently valued at about $4 billion, may see its valuation double after the proposed funding round, they said, adding the talks haven’t reached the final stages.
Last October, Ola had raised $1.1 billion from SoftBank Group and Tencent, among others. It had announced back then that it would raise $1 billion more.
However, the company’s proposed fund raise has faced hurdles over concerns related to a boardroom battle between Ola chief executive Bhavish Aggarwal and SoftBank and Tiger Global, the people cited above said. Aggarwal had blocked a proposed sale of shares by Tiger Global to SoftBank late last year in order to stop the Japanese investor from raising its stake.
Potential investors are wary of backing a company that has had differences with SoftBank, the most powerful investor in the tech world, the people added.
Temasek is already in the process of becoming a shareholder in Ola through a secondary deal worth over $200 million. Once that deal is completed, Temasek will invest primary capital in Ola at a much higher valuation, the people mentioned above said.
“Temasek has decided to complete the secondary share purchase first, before finalizing the terms of the primary investment. Usually both primary and secondary transactions happen simultaneously, but in this case, they want to negotiate the primary transaction at a higher valuation only after existing shareholers have sold their stakes in the secondary deal,” said one of the people cited above.