Ratan Tata Funds Ola Electric With A Vision To Bring Green Mobility In India

Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, has been known for his investments in India¡¯s growing startups. Adding to the list of firms funded by him, Ola Electric Mobility Pvt Ltd has now received an undisclosed amount of funds from the entrepreneur as a part of the EV mobility firm¡¯s Series A round of funding.

The global business icon is also an investor in Ola¡¯s parent company ANI Technologies. With an ample amount of funds invested in the firm periodically, Tata now edges to gain even more from his vision of the future of mobility in India.

Ola Electric, which is looking to bring a complete ecosystem of electric vehicle mobility in India, will be getting a much needed boost from this latest funding from Ratan Tata, on both monetary as well as publicity terms. The company¡¯s goal is to set up adequate (charging) infrastructure, a fleet of India-centric electric vehicles as well as battery swapping models on them to usher in an era of electric vehicle mobility through its ride-sharing service.

For this, Ola Electric has already started deploying electric vehicles across two, three and four-wheeler segments, starting from Nagpur. In 2018, Ola subsequently announced ¡®Mission: Electric¡¯ to bring 1 million Electric Vehicles on Indian roads by 2021.

(Image: Twitter/ Bhavish Aggarwal)

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Evidently, Ratan Tata believes in this new era of EV powered mobility. He commented upon his investment, stating ¡°electric vehicle ecosystem is evolving dramatically every day, and I believe Ola Electric will play a key role in its growth and development.¡±

The investment also helps Tata¡¯s own conglomerate. Tata Motors is one of the only two Indian auto makers which produce electric vehicles in the country as of now. While Mahindra & Mahindra, being the other one, has made its electric vehicles available for the public, Tata Motors only supplies its own on a partnership basis, mostly to government organisations. With Ola Electric aiming to have its own fleet of electric vehicles, Tata Motors should now be the preferred partner for the same.

For the same, Ola Electric had earlier announced a partnership with Hyundai Motors India. The auto major is planning to introduce its electric vehicles in the countrywide fleet of Indian ride-sharing firm Ola by 2021. EVs to be used for this will be developed under Hyundai¡¯s ¡®Smart EV¡¯ platform and will specifically be made for Ola.

Ola Electric Mobility Pvt Ltd earlier raised a sum of Rs 400 crores led by several of Ola¡¯s early investors, Tiger Global and Matrix India and others, as part of its first round of investment.