Ola, India's biggest online cab aggregator, has attracted an investment of Rs 1,478 crore ($222.5 million) in a new round of funding led by New York-based Falcon Edge Capital.

The funding is a part of the $500 million that the taxi-hailing firm is aiming to raise, which will take its valuation to about $5 billion, Reuters quoted an industry source as saying.

In April, the Bengaluru-based firm had raised $400 million from investors led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's DST Global. The funding made it the third-most valuable venture-backed company in India after Flipkart and Snapdeal.

Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, had also bought stake in online cab aggregator Ola.

In the latest round of funding, Falcon Edge is joined by existing investors Tiger Global Management LLC, Softbank Corp and others.

The funding comes at a time when Ola's rival Uber is planning to invest $1 billion in India to expand its presence in the rapidly growing app-based taxi-hailing market in the country.

Ola claims to have 80% of the market share after acquiring TaxiForSure in March this year. The company expects to clock 1 million trips a day from the current 750,000 trips. Ola plans to expand its services to about 200 smaller towns and cities in the country.

Uber sees about 200,000 trips a day, operating in nearly 100 cities in the country. India is an important market to Uber, as it has only minor presence in the Chinese market.

On Monday, Ola launched a cab leasing programme for drivers, in which it plans to invest Rs 5,000 crore ($752.67 million). The move is aimed at attracting more drivers into the system and gaining "greater control of its fleet of cars."

Also Read