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Date: March 24, 2020

Ola Electric's latest funding was backed by Matrix Partners India and Tiger Global Management.

Ola Electric, a platform to build cost-effective technology for daily mobility bagged $56 million in Series A funding. The latest funding was backed by Matrix Partners India and Tiger Global Management.

Ola Electric is a unit of India’s unicorn car-hailing service Ola that is headed by Anand Shah and Ankit Shah. It is a response from Ola to the Mahindra’s new electric cab service Glyde. Now everyone is waiting to see how Uber will tackle this situation of growing competition.

Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said,

"At Ola Electric, our mission is to enable sustainable mobility for everyone. India can leapfrog problems of pollution and energy security by moving to electric mobility, create millions of new jobs and economic opportunity, and lead the world."

The independently capitalized company has promised to focus on key areas that will include EV batteries, charging solutions and developing feasible infrastructure that will allow electric vehicles to operate commercially on a larger scale. The reason for running Ola Electric independently from the parent company is the development of EV’s goes behind the cab service.

Anand Shah, head of Ola Electric Mobility said,

“The first problem to solve in electric mobility is charging: users need a dependable, convenient, and affordable replacement for the petrol pump. By making electric easy for commercial vehicles that deliver a disproportionate share of kilometers traveled, we can jumpstart the electric vehicle revolution.”

Last year, Ola pledged to bring one million electric vehicles by 2022 on Indian roads. Now from this year, they are focusing to diversify their new unit Ola Electric. From a few months, Ola is very active in raising a series of funds. Recently Ola bagged $92 M from Sachin Bansal. The company is showing its serious intentions to compete with Uber and become a major ride-hailing service provider in India.

While the cab providing services in the western world like the U.S. are focusing on autonomous vehicles, most of the Asian countries like India are focusing on more reliable electric vehicles. Even the government of India has said that its intention is to make 30 percent of electric vehicles by 2030. But no major steps are seen to be taken by the government in implementing the formal policy to guide this issue.

By Arpit Dubey

Arpit is a dreamer, wanderer, and a tech nerd who loves to jot down tech musings and updates. With a logician mind, he is always chasing sunrises and tech advancements while secretly preparing for the robot uprising.