China’s Tencent is in talks with homegrown cab aggregator Ola for a fresh round of funding worth $400 million, according to a latest report from the Economic Times. Citing four people aware of the development, ET stated that Tencent executives met with Ola’s management team to discuss funding.
The funding from Tencent will help Ola fight against rival Uber which has been pretty aggressive in the country. Ola has been raising funds since the beginning of this year. The company secured $100 million (Rs. 670 crores) funding from Falcon Edge, Ratan Tata in May and $50 million funding from New York-based hedge fund Tekne Capital in June which took Ola’s valuation to $3.65 billion from $3.5 billion in February. Ola has a presence in 110 Indian cities compared to Uber’s operations in 29.
Meanwhile, Southeast Asia’s top ride-hailing service Grab recently secured a whopping $2.5 billion to compete with Uber.