Cab hailing firm Ola is in rigorous discussions to invest in carpooling app sRide, for an investment pegged at Rs.30 crore to pick up a stake of 26% and upwards, reported Biswarup Gooptu of ET Tech.
Founded in 2015, sRide operates in over 12 cities in India as well as in 50 schools of the U.S.. In India, it operates in Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Bhubaneswar and Kochi. According the company, its the only App in India with 10 city presence.
The ET Tech report further said that besides ANI Technologies, the parent of Ola, few other investment firms could also participate in posible fundraise of sRide and pump in capital in a fresh round in the Pune-based startup.
Since its launch three yerars back, sRide has largely been a bootstrapped and self-funded startup and if this funding materialize then it will be the startup's first institutional capital fund raise.
In 2016, sRide had raised about $1 million in angel funding and before that it got investment of around $1.5 million from private investors (friends & family) in March 2015.
sRide is the brainchild of Lakshna Jha (in Pic above), an MBA from Columbia Business School and worked as a technology leader for leading technology companies. [Read our featured story on sRide - 2015]
For Ola, this will be second investment in urban mobility space as the company had earlier invested $100 million in Vogo, a scooter rental startup, in December.