Excl: Tiger Global invests $3.2M more in Olacabs

Mumbai-based ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd, which runs an online marketplace for cabs and car rental services under the brand Olacabs, has raised Rs 19.2 crore ($3.2 million) from existing investor Tiger Global, sources told Techcircle.in.

This is the third round of funding for Olacabs and the second institutional round. It had previously raised angel funding from a bunch of individual investors, including Rehan Yar Khan and Anupam Mittal.

It had followed it up with Series A funding by private equity fund Tiger Global, which has been one of the most active early stage private investors in the internet business in the country. It had raised around Rs 20 crore ($4 million back then) in early 2012 from Tiger Global which though the fresh round has doubled its exposure to the firm. For more details of the transaction click here.

The company is expected to use the funds raised to expand its services to more cities in the country. As of now, it offers cab-booking facilities in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi-NCR and Pune.

When contacted, Olacabs co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal declined to comment on the development.

Techcircle.in had first reported that the firm is looking at a fresh round of VC funding. It could not be immediately ascertained if the latest funding from Tiger Global is part of a larger round.

Olacabs was founded in January 2011 by IIT Bombay alumni Aggarwal and Bhati. Prior to Olacabs, Aggarwal was working as assistant researcher at Microsoft Research, India, while Bhati was working as system administrator at Wilcom. The services provided by Olacabs include point-to-point services within the city, hour-based rental services and bookings for outstation travel. Considering the company's business model is an asset light model, it does not burn a lot of cash in comparison to the other general e-commerce companies. The team size is 400.

How is it faring?

According to Aggarwal, the bookings have been growing at the rate of 40 per cent month on month for a few months now, while the average ticket size of transactions is Rs 400, of which Olacabs receives around 15 per cent, depending on the car type, number of cars, etc. The company had launched its mobile apps for the Android and iOS platforms in July last year and currently, over 30 per cent of the total bookings for the company happen through the app.

As of June 30, 2012, the company had close to 1,000 cars in a number of categories; this number has now increased to over 4,000 and the company is currently working with over 1,500 operators. Note that the company does not own these cars; it simply aggregates and brands them to offer on the platform.

Other investments in the segment

The online car rental services space has been one of the hottest segments in the consumer Internet space, with a whole bunch of startups raising funding in 2012.

July 2013: Bangalore-based Cubito Solution Pvt Ltd, which owns and runs the shared cab service portal Cubito, raised under $100K (Rs 59 lakh) in angel funding from unnamed Indian angel investors.

June 2013: Bangalore-based Serendipity Infolabs Pvt Ltd, the company that owns and operates the online taxi booking site TaxiForSure.com, raised its first round of institutional funding from existing seed investors Accel Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Blume Ventures.

December 2012: Sharedcab.com, a provider of shared taxi services, raised under Rs 5 crore from Anupam Mittal, Sasha Mirchandani (Kae Capital), Blume Ventures, Rajesh Sawhney and a few unmanned investors.

July 2012: Online (and on phone) cab booking service BookMyCab, run by startup LiveMinds Solutions Pvt Ltd, raised an undisclosed amount in its first round of fundraising from early stage investor Your Nest Angel Fund and Mumbai Angels.

April 2012: Bangalore-based Savaari Car Rentals Pvt Ltd raised a Series A funding of Rs 5 crore from Inventus Capital Partners; Taxiguide, an online car rental booking service, had raised Rs 25 lakh in angel funding from Anand RP, investment director at Squadron Capital. Anand made this investment in his personal capacity; and Bangalore-based startup YourCabs Auto Services Pvt. Ltd, which runs YourCabs.com, an online cab booking service, received an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Sprism Investment Pvt Ltd and an unnamed angel investor.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)