Ola’s revenue surges 70% to ₹1,286 crore in 2016-17

Bengaluru: India’s largest cab-hailing service Ola reported a 70% jump in revenue during the year ended March 2017, according to latest regulatory filings.

Ola posted a revenue of ₹ 1,286 crore in the 2016-17 financial year, compared with ₹ 758.23 crore in the year-ago period, according to filings with the ministry of corporate affairs.

Ola, which is run by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, did not immediately disclose its profit or loss figures, but in the 2015-16 financial year, the cab-hailing start-up had generated losses of roughly ₹ 2,313 crore.

Cab-hailing services such as Ola and Uber Technologies generate revenues from the commission that they charge drivers.

The latest numbers indicate that Ola has managed to hold its own against Uber in India over the past 18-24 months, after a brief period when it lost market share to the US-based cab-hailing giant.

Ola is currently locked in a bruising market share battle with Uber, which has expanded rapidly in India since it launched its service in the country nearly five years ago. Both companies count Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. as a common investor.

Uber claims it is bigger than Ola, but Ola has claimed that Uber is less than half its size.

There is no conclusive way of ascertaining either claim, although company executives at both firms have indicated that Ola still remains the market leader in India.

Ola, which is among India’s most well-funded start-ups, raised $1.1 billion in fresh funding from China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd and existing investor SoftBank Group Corp. of Japan in October last year, giving it enough ammunition to keep arch-rival Uber at bay. Ola is currently in talks with new and existing investors to raise at least another $1 billion.

For Ola to keep Uber at bay and to continue with its ambitious plans to expand and launch in countries outside India, it will need to continue raising massive amounts of capital over the next few years.

Earlier this year, Ola launched its service in Australia and is currently evaluating other countries as well.

Including its fundraise in October, Ola has so far raised at least $2.6 billion over the past five years from a clutch of investors such as SoftBank, Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners and DST Global, even as it continues talks to raise more funds.

Ola was valued at $4 billion last year after its fundraise from SoftBank and Tencent Holdings.

Mint reported in May that Ola is adopting a holding company structure similar to that of India’s most successful internet start-up Flipkart to boost the cab-hailing company’s valuation and improve the management of its businesses.

Mint also reported earlier in May that SoftBank is in the midst of a boardroom battle with Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Ola, after Aggarwal blocked a proposed deal involving Tiger Global Management selling part of its stake to SoftBank.