Soft Bank-Ola deal is likely to be sealed soon

Masayoshi Son, Chairman and Managing Director of Japan-based SoftBank Group Corp is likely to visit India in early December to seal a couple of deals with various Indian conglomerate. The most important highlight of the visit would be its investment in Ola. There are reports that the home grown cab aggregator is looking to raise around $500 million in a fresh round of funding from its existing investors, including SoftBank, and the US-based General Motors.

Soft Bank has already made investments in Snapdeal, Oyo Rooms, housing.com and Grofers. It has, so far, invested $2 billion in India and is reportedly planning to invest another $10 billion in the Indian market.

Founded in Jan 2011 by IIT Bombay alumni Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola (formerly Olacabs), is India’s most popular mobile app for personal transportation. Ola integrates city transportation for customers and driver partners onto a mobile technology platform ensuring convenient, transparent and quick service fulfilment. Using the Ola mobile app, users across 102 cities book from over 4,50,000 vehicles across cabs, auto-rickshaws and taxis. Ola has also introduced a range of shared mobility services on its platform like Ola Shuttle and Ola Share for commute and ride-sharing respectively.