Sachin Bansal gets on board Ola with Rs 150 cr investment; app now valued at Rs 4,090 cr

Former Flipkart CEO Sachin Bansal has invested Rs 150 crore in homegrown ride-hailing app Ola. This is his first big investment after selling the e-commerce company to Walmart.  

Ola has allotted Flipkart founder 70,588 shares at Rs 21,250 per share, according to a report by Economic Times.

Ola's filings with the Registrar of Companies reveals that Bansal made the investment on January 12.

However, according to a report by VCCircle, a source, who did not wish to be identified, said that Bansal had actually invested Rs 650 crore and that the Registrar of Companies has disclosed only a small amount of the investment.

"Sachin's investment in Ola will strengthen Bhavish's position inside Ola as he fights against SoftBank," the managing partner of a top Indian company told LiveMint on the condition of anonymity.

He added, "Over the years, Aggarwal has learnt from the mistakes that the Bansals made at Flipkart by giving a single investor too much control that ultimately resulted in Sachin's exit from the company. Sachin will be in a position to advise Aggarwal as he continues to fight against SoftBank."

While the current valuation of Ola is $5.7 billion after Steadview Capital's investment of Rs 520 crore in the company, with Bansal's Rs 650 crore investment, Ola's valuation could likely go up to $5.8 billion or Rs 4,090 crore.

Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal had sold Flipkart to Walmart for a whopping $16 billion after which Sachin quit the company. Sachin had also sold his entire 5.5 per cent shares in Flipkart to Walmart.

Bansal's investment in Ola has helped strengthen the cab-hailing company's CEO Bhavish Aggarwal's position in the company. Aggarwal is currently in a boardroom battle with Ola's biggest shareholder SoftBank Group Corp, which has offered to invest more in Ola.