Samih Abdel Rahman

Jul 4, 2019

Ola's latest funding comes from investors such as Swedish-based DIG Investment Ab, US-based Deshe Holdings, and Samih Abdel Rahman and Hussam Khoury, the two founders of Dubai-based technology investment firm Jabbar Internet Group. Share on Bengaluru-based ride-hailing unicorn Ola has raised $11.37 million (Rs 79.93 crore) as part of its ongoing Series J round, according to RoC filings accessed by YourStory. The funding came from investors such as Swedish-based DIG Investment Ab, US-based Deshe Holdings, and Samih Abdel Rahman and Hussam Khoury, the two founders of Dubai-based technology investment firm Jabbar Internet Group. Of the total, DIG Investment Ab invested Rs 54.9 crore, Deshe Holdings infused Rs 17.66 crore, and Samih Abdel Rahman and Hussam Khoury poured in Rs 3.55 crore and Rs 1.76 crore respectively. Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO, Ola Ola, which plans to raise close to $1 billion as part of its ongoing fundraising exercise, has received a commitment of nearly $485 million so far for this round including the latest one. Earlier this year, Ola received $74 million led by Steadview Capital, followed by a $100 million investment from Flipkart co-founder and former CEO Sachin Bansal and $300 million funding announcement from Korean automotive giants Hyundai and Kia Motors. Ola has raised a total of over $3.8 billion so far. It is also backed by marquee investors such as SoftBank and Ratan Tata among others. On Tuesday, Ola’s electric mobility unit, Ola Electric raised $250 million from SoftBank and marked its entry into the Indian unicorn club. Ola, which is offering its services across 50 cities in India, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, claims to complete over a billion rides annually with its over 1.5 million drivers. Recently, the Karnataka Transport Department had asked cab aggregators Ola and Uber to stop their pool services immediately in Bengaluru. Prior to this, it had pulled up Ola’s bike services in March 2019. The department's two-page notice stated that the ride-hailing app has been illegally operating the bike-taxi services through alleged 'fake licences'. The letter also said that the app-based services are against the Karnataka Motor Vehicles Act.