US Investment Firm Vanguard Reduces Ola's Valuation to $2 Billion 

The US-based investment management firm Vanguard has reduced the valuation of ride-sharing platform Ola to around $2 billion. 

The company mentioned that it now values its share in ANI Technologies at $14.3 million. This is less than the $51 million that was initially invested by the company to acquire those shares. 

At one point in time, Ola, which competes with Uber and Rapido, was valued at $7.3 billion in 2021. The US asset manager, which made its investment in Ola in 2015, cut the company’s valuation multiple times. 

The US based investment firm did the same in February this year to $1.9 billion. This was 74 percent lower than the valuation in December 2021. The ride-hailing platform reportedly raised around $139 million from several investors, including IIFL, Edelweiss, and Hero Enterprise. 

Additionally, in August last year, Vanguard reduced the valuation of the company to about $3.5 billion. Further, the asset manager also reduced its valuation at Ola to $4.8 billion in May 2023. This is coming at a time when Ola Consumers, formerly known as Ola Cabs, is eyeing going public. 

As per The Arc, the company has sought approval from investors to turn it into a public entity. For its upcoming IPO, the report suggests that Ola Consumer chose banks such as Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Kotak Bank. 

Read: Kunal Kamra Vs. Bhavish Aggarwal: Ola's EV Service Issues Spark Fiery Exchange on X

Ola Consumers was rebranded from Ola Cabs in August of this year. Speaking about the same, Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said at an event, "Cabs is one of the services this company offers. We are going to offer a broader range of services." Aggarwal further highlighted that the main aim of the company is to make commerce accessible for the masses. 

Ola’s business also includes Ola Electric, which recently went public this year, and AI start-up Krutrim AI. Ola Electric has been on the news lately for its mounting consumer complaints. The company also received a show cause notice from the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) about the same. 

Meanwhile, Ola Electric has highlighted in a regulatory filing that 99.1 percent of the 10,644 complaints have been solved. The company said in a regulatory filing on October 21, “In fact, we wish to emphasize that out of 10,644 complaints that we received from the CCPA, 99.1% of the complaints were resolved to the complete satisfaction of the customer as per Ola Electric’s robust redressal mechanism.”