Ola Electric raises ₹1,490 crore fund, valuation now at ₹37 thousand crore

Indian electric two-wheeler manufacturer Ola Electric has raised more funding to increase its valuation to $5 billion, roughly converted to ₹37 thousand crore. The company has announced that it has raised over $200 million, roughly converted to around ₹1,490.5 crore.

Ola electric said it has raised this fund from Tekne Private Ventures, Alpine Opportunity Fund, Edelweiss and others.

Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO at Ola Electric, made a statement saying, “Ola Electric is creating India's EV revolution and is driving cutting edge manufacturing from India for the entire world. With Ola S1, the best scooter ever made, we have changed the entire scooter industry and are now looking forward to bringing our innovative products to more two-wheeler categories, including bikes as well as cars. I thank the investors for their support and look forward to partnering with them to take the EV revolution from India to the world."

The latest funding comes months after Ola had announced another 200 million dollars from Falcon Edge, Softbank and others in September last year. Back then, Ola Electric's valuation was at around 3 billion dollars. Ola Electric had raised funding from other investors like Tiger Global and Matrix India earlier. In July last year, Ola Electric had announced $100 million (roughly converted to around ₹744.5 crore) 10 year-term debt financing agreement with the Bank of Baroda.

The funds came at a time when Ola Electric is aiming to step up production of its S1 and S1 Pro electric scooters. The Ola S1 electric scooter is priced at ₹1 lakh while the more capable S1 Pro is priced at ₹1.30 lakh.

The funding is likely to help ramp up Ola's production capacity at its 'Futurefactory', which aims to be the world's largest two-wheeler manufacturing facility. The facility employs over 10,000 women and is one of the largest women-only factory globally.

There has been a lot of interest around Ola Electric scooters. The company had opened pre-launch bookings of its electric scooters last year in July. The company claims it received around one lakh bookings against a nominal amount of ₹499 within just 24 hours. However, it took four months for Ola Electric to finally start delivering the scooters to its customers after launching the S1 and S1 Pro on August 15.

The Ola S1 e-scooter claims to cover 121 kms on a single charge. The more-expensive S1 Pro brags of going around 180 kms before needing a recharge even though the real-world range is around 130 kms.