Eola Electric raises $385 million from Temasek and State Bank of India
Electric vehicle maker Ola Electric has raised Rs 3,200 crore ($385 million) from a mix of equity and debt from lead investors led by Temasek and State Bank of India (SBI).
The funds will be used to expand Ola’s EV business and set up India’s first lithium-ion cell manufacturing facility in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, Ola Electric said in a press release.
Ola Electric will start its lithium-ion cell manufacturing facility with an initial capacity of 5 gigawatt hours in the first phase which will be expanded to 100 gigawatt hours at full capacity in phases.
Apart from scooters, Ola has also introduced its motorcycle line-up which will be launched by the end of next year.
Over the past few months, Ola Electric has raised money in several tranches. Temasek, Blue Investments, DIG Investments, Tiger Global, Tecne Private Ventures and Ashutosh Vinayak Joshi have collectively invested $300 million in the Bengaluru-based company. Entrackr decoded it on 7 October.
According to TheKredible estimates, the company is valued at around Rs 44,410 crore or $5.4 billion after the allotment. This is a significant increase in valuation from $5 billion in January last year.
With this, Ola Electric has raised over $1 billion from equity and debt.
With 23.6% of the total, SoftBank is the biggest external stakeholder, followed by Matrix, Tiger Global, and other startups, according to data intelligence platform TheKredible. Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder and CEO, owns 36.6% of the company, ahead of Series E.
The company’s fiercest competitor, Ather Energy, also secured $108 million from Hero MotoCorp and GIC last month.
While Ola Electric has not yet filed its annual report for FY23, the firm posted Rs 373 crore in operating revenue during FY22, compared to Rs 0.86 crore in FY21. Manufacturing expenses and additional overhead costs resulted in losses increasing four-fold, reaching Rs 784 crore in FY2012.
