Uber’s India rival, Ola, is reportedly raising $500M at a $5B valuation

Uber’s main rival in India, Ola, is raising a fresh round of funding of up to or more than $500 million, according to multiple reports.

News that Ola has already secured $225 million as part of the round was first reported by Mint on Sunday. The India-based publication, however, did not comment on the new valuation — Ola was most recently valued at about $2.5 billion as of a $400 million funding round in April.

[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1803316,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"bots,business,entrepreneur,","session":"B"}']

TechCrunch seems to have first reported the new $5 billion valuation, but that has since been followed by The Wall Street Journal and Reuters. The three publications are each citing their own sources familiar with the deal.

Investors in the fresh round include new entry Falcon Edge Capital, alongside existing investors Tiger Global Management and SoftBank, according to the reports. Ola filed the documents with India’s Registrar of Companies on September 8, Mint said.

The company is expected to make a formal announcement of the new funding round sometime this month, and it’s possible the details being reported today are not yet finalized.

As in China, the battle for car-hailing apps in India does not appear to be slowing down. Ola now claims more than 750,000 rides per day, and expects to hit the one million milestone soon, according to Reuters. Uber, meanwhile, is reportedly averaging 200,000 daily rides in India.

We reported at the end of August that Ola had inked new partnerships with some of India’s largest ecommerce players, allowing the more than 20 million users of its Ola Money ewallet to buy goods on those other platforms.

Ola is also expanding aggressively into auto-rickshaws, shuttle bus services, food delivery (Ola Café), and grocery delivery (Ola Store). It’s all part of the company’s attempt to retain a local edge over foreign rival Uber, which is now said to be worth over $50 billion — and still raising.

VentureBeat has reached out to Ola for comment, and we’ll update you if we hear back.