SoftBank has pumped $250 million into Ola, Uber’s Indian rival, documents filed with the Registrar of Companies reveal. Tech in Asia had earlier reported that Ola had secured Rs 1,675 crore ($330 million) in fresh funding, at a valuation of $3.5 billion, 30 percent lower than its previous valuation.
This comes a year-and-a-half after Ola’s last major funding of $500 million in November 2015. Last year was tough with SoftBank writing down its investment in Ola.
SoftBank is currently negotiating for the sale of its biggest investment in India, the beleaguered e-commerce site Snapdeal, to Flipkart. The funding of Ola comes in the same week as the $1.4 billion funding of Flipkart by Tencent, Microsoft, and eBay.
