Hyundai planning to invest in Ola as cab-hailing market intensifies

Ola is in talks with Hyundai Motor Company for investing about USD 300 million in the cab-hailing platform, according to sources. The discussions are at an advanced stage and a deal could be closed in the next few weeks, sources said.

If the deal goes through, it would be Hyundai's second investment in the Indian startup ecosystem. Previously, it had led an Rs 100-crore funding round in car rental startup Revv. Ola did not respond to an e-mailed query on the development. A Hyundai Motors India spokesperson said 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 the Bengaluru-based company 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).