Shared mobility major Uber pumps $246 mn into India arm

Uber India Systems, the local arm of San Francisco headquartered shared mobility firm Uber, has raised $246 million from parent entities Uber International Holding and Uber International. The company issued 1.1 crore shares to the two holding companies, its latest regulatory filings show.

The fund infusion preceded the transfer of the India ride sharing and food delivery businesses to the Mumbai based company. 

Uber’s India businesses were earlier operated by Uber BV, a Dutch subsidiary of Uber Technologies. Early this month, Uber BV transferred the businesses to Uber India Systems. In exchange, Uber BV was allotted 1.6 crore shares worth Rs 2,539 crore or $353.8 million. Uber’s ride sharing business here is valued at $265 million while the food delivery business is valued at $104 million.

Last month, Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s global CEO had said the company planned to double the headcount at its Hyderabad and Bengaluru research and development centres to 1,000 people while adding that India would play a central role in its product development strategy over the next decade.

The announcement came in the wake of layoffs of over 1,000 people by the ride sharing major across its operations globally since July. 

In India, Uber competes closely with Bengaluru-based ANI Technologies, which operates ride sharing platform Ola. The two companies also share a common investor in SoftBank Group Corp and Ola has reportedly been in talks to raise up to $200 million from US technology giant Microsoft. Recently, Ola also launched its self drive car renting service Ola Drive in Bengaluru. The company also plans to transform its food delivery operations FoodPanda into a cloud kitchen platform.