Mumbai-based ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd, which runs an online marketplace for cabs and car rental services under the brand Olacabs, has raised $20 million (Rs 126 crore) in a new round of funding from existing investor Tiger Global, with participation from Matrix Partners, according to NextBigWhat, which said the company has confirmed the funding without commenting on the value.
We are contacting the management for an official confirmation of the funding which is reportedly going to be used for expansion of operations to non-metro cities besides scaling up the technology infrastructure.
VCCircle had reported in July that the firm has raised over $3 million in fresh funding from existing investor Tiger Global. The firm had raised Series A funding by hedge fund Tiger Global, which has been one of the most active early stage private investors in the internet business in the country. It had raised around Rs 20 crore ($4 million back then) in early 2012 from Tiger Global.
Olacabs had previously raised angel funding from a bunch of individual investors, including Rehan Yar Khan and Anupam Mittal.
We had also reported that Olcabs was in talks for a Series B round. It is not immediately clear if Tiger Global had come in to provide follow on funding of its Series A round in July or the deal was part of a larger Series B funding.
Olacabs was founded in January 2011 by IIT Bombay alumni Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati. Prior to Olacabs, Aggarwal was working as assistant researcher at Microsoft Research, India, while Bhati was working as system administrator at Wilcom.
The services provided by Olacabs include point-to-point services within the city, hour-based rental services and bookings for outstation travel. Recently, the firm expanded its operations to Chennai, with plans to go to other non-metro and tier II cities soon.
It would be yet another online cab rental services venture to get another institutional round of funding this year. Inventus-backed Savaari raised an undisclosed amount from Intel Capital and Taxiforsure, which had got seed funding from Accel Partners, Blume Ventures and Helion Venture Partners last year, scooped a Series A round from existing investors. Olacabs, however, has raised much more than its peers, in terms of quantum.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
