Ola Electric raises over $200 million

Ola Electric Mobility Pvt. Ltd has raised more than $200 million in a round led by SoftBank and Falcon Edge, among others, at a valuation of $3 billion, bolstering its plans to enter new vehicle categories.

The electric scooter maker plans to use the capital to develop other EV platforms such as electric motorcycles, mass-market scooters and an electric car, it said in a statement on Thursday.

“India has the talent and the capability to build technologies of the future for the industries of the future for the entire world. I thank our existing investors and welcome new ones to Ola. Together we will bring mobility to a billion and sustainability to the future,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder, chairman and group chief executive officer of Ola Cabs. Aggarwal is also the founder of Ola Electric.

Ola Electric, which was founded in 2017, was last valued at more than $1 billion when it raised $250 million from SoftBank in July 2019. This also marks SoftBank’s second investment in Ola’s EV venture.

The company launched its first electric scooter range comprising the S1 and S1 Pro models earlier this month. On 17 September, Ola Electric said it sold more than ₹1,100 crore worth of electric scooters during a two-day sale. A day prior to that, the first day of the sale, the company clocked ₹600 crore in sales and claimed it sold four scooters every second in the first 24 hours. A second sale is being planned, starting 1 November, coinciding with the Diwali festival.

Ola Electric was forced to defer sales of the S1 scooter model until 15 September as it faced technical issues with its website on 9 September. On 15 August, the company ended weeks of speculation and unveiled the electric scooter range. The S1 is priced at ₹99,999, excluding subsidies by respective states and the Union government, while S1 Pro model costs ₹1.3 lakh.

Ola Electric claims to have built its Futurefactory, billed as the world’s single-largest two-wheeler factory, in a record six months. The facility at Hosur in Tamil Nadu has completed phase 1 of construction and is currently undergoing production trials. The Futurefactory is also said to be the world’s largest factory to be run entirely by women. At full scale, it will have more than 10,000 women employees.