Ola raises $100 mn debt for first phase of Futurefactory

Ola Electric and Bank of Baroda today signed a long-term debt financing agreement for funding and financial closure of the Phase I of Ola Futurefactory, Ola’s global manufacturing hub for electric two-wheelers.  

Ola had earlier announced last December that it will be investing Rs 2,400 crore for setting up the Phase I of the factory.

“Today’s agreement for long term debt financing signals the confidence of institutional lenders in our plans to build the world’s largest two-wheeler factory in record time,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, chairman & group CEO, Ola.  

“The government has brought in several policies to incentivise make-in-India and to enable India to become a global electric vehicle leader,” said Sanjiv Chadha, managing director & chief executive officer, Bank of Baroda.

The Ola Futurefactory is coming up on a 500 acre site in Tamil Nadu. At full capacity of 10 million vehicles annually, it will be the world’s largest two-wheeler factory, the company statement said.  

The first phase of Ola Futurefactory is nearing completion shortly, following which production trials of the much awaited Ola Scooter will commence. The soon-to-be-launched Ola Scooter will be manufactured at the Ola Futurefactory, which will also serve as the global EV hub for Ola for its range of scooters and other two-wheelers.

A few days back, Temasek and Warbug Pincus announced an investment of $500 million in Ola that’s headed for public listing.

Ola, which is backed by SoftBank, is looking to scale up across categories and geographies in its ride-hailing business.  

Last month, the firm appointed two chief financial officers GR Arun Kumar and Swayam Saurabh.

Founded in 2010 by Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola serves more than 250 cities across India, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. Its employee count stands at over 7,000.