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Hyundai May Invest $300 Million In Ola

The discussions are at an advanced stage and a deal could be closed in the next few weeks. 

A fleet of Ola cabs stand on the roadside for an arragned pciture in Mumbai. (Source: Ola)
A fleet of Ola cabs stand on the roadside for an arragned pciture in Mumbai. (Source: Ola)

Ola is in talks with Hyundai Motor Company to raise about $300 million, people with knowledge of the matter told PTI.

The discussions are at an advanced stage, and a deal could be closed in the next few weeks, the people added, on the condition of anonymity.

If the deal goes through, it would be Hyundai's second investment in the Indian startup ecosystem. Previously, it had led a Rs 100-crore funding round in car rental startup Revv.

Ola did not respond to an e-mail query on the development. A Hyundai Motors India spokesperson said the company is "open to cooperation with various potential partners but it is our policy not to comment on market speculation and rumours".

The fresh funding will give the Bengaluru-based company more ammunition to compete with rival Uber in India and other markets like Australia, New Zealand and the U.K.

In February, Ola had announced that Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has invested about Rs 650 crore in the company. The investment was in Sachin's personal capacity and was also the largest financing by an individual in Ola.

Bansal's investment was part of Ola's plans to raise about $1 billion. In October last year, the company had announced raising $1.1 billion funding from China's Tencent Holdings and SoftBank Group.

At that time, it had also stated that it was in "advanced talks" to close an additional $1 billion funding to take total mop-up to more than $2 billion.

Ola has been aggressively ramping up its rides business as well as food delivery operations (through Foodpanda).