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Even as mobility major Ola is yet to announce a firm IPO timeline, a company source speaking to BusinessLine said that IPO preparations have not stopped and there were no plans to defer it. “IPO timeline is driven by both market conditions and company readiness,” the source added.
In December 2021 , Ola had announced plans to go public by early 2022 and was estimated to raise around $1-2 billion from the IPO. However, given that a number of companies that raised funds in the recent past are trading below their IPO value and markets have turned sour on such fresh IPOs, companies have been forced to defer their plans and look for alternate funding arrangements.
Earlier this week, reports had claimed that Ola is looking to raise a new round of funding at a lower valuation. However, the company source said, “Ola has recently raised a good amount of funding, so raising funds below the current $7.3-billion valuation is definitely not being considered. The company’s financial runway is quite strong at the moment.” ANI Technologies, the parent company of Ola, has, till now, raised $3 billion in 11 rounds of funding.
Ola operates in multiple business verticals including insurance, retail of pre-owned cars, ride-hailing, quick grocery delivery and cloud kitchens, among others. A separate company Ola Electric manufactures EV scooters and has hinted at getting into electric cars.
In December 2021, Ola had obtained $500 million through a Term Loan B from marquee international institutional investors. This was preceded by a fund-raise of $139 million from Edelweiss, Siddhant Partners, IIFL, Tejal Merchantile, Hero Entreprise, Vicco Laboratories, Alka DP Family Trust and Atul DP Family Trust, among others.
The mobility major, however, has seen quite a few hiccups in its IPO run-up. In October 2021, Ola’s chief financial officer Swayam Saurabh and COO Gaurav Porwal quit the company, as the company underwent internal restructuring. Ola has reported a positive EBITDA of ₹89.82 crore (on a standalone basis) for FY21, which is a 109 per cent improvement on an year-on-year basis. The company also reported a profit before tax of ₹76.29 crore in FY 2021 on a standalone basis, an improvement of more than 2x on a year-on-year basis.
Ola did not respond to BusinessLine queries on its IPO plans and fundraising efforts.
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