Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, has made a personal investment in the country’s largest cab aggregator Ola, as per a press statement.
Financial details of the funding are not disclosed.
Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO and co-founder of Ola, which is run by Mumbai-based ANI Technologies, said, "It is our honour to have Ratan Tata onboard as an investor. This is a huge endorsement from one of the most respected business leaders of our times and reflects Ola’s commitment towards the future of mobility in India. We look forward to learning from Tata’s experience in building a world class organisation from India.â€
Ola, which competes with San Francisco-based Uber, has set an ambitious target to reach one million drivers on its platform in three years. Currently the service has over 100,000 drivers, a number that has grown from 10,000 a year ago.
In March, Ola had raised $400 million from Russian investor DST Global and others. Ola is now present in about 100 cities; it plans to cover 200 cities by the year-end.
For Tata, this would be the eighth known personal investment in the tech space since 2012, when he retired from the Tata group. He has also backed Paytm parent One97 Communications, Snapdeal, Urban Ladder, Bluestone and CarDekho besides investing in Chinese handset maker Xiaomi.
US-based airborne wind turbine developer Altaeros Energies and Grameen Capital, which dabbles in microfinance, are also part of Tata’s portfolio.
Tata's last know investment was in KAARYAH Lifestyle Solutions Pvt Ltd, which operates an e-commerce site selling women’s fashion wear besides offering its products through third party e-tailers.