The Competiton Commission of India (CCI) has approved an additional share purchase by Ola founders, Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, in ANI Technologies, Ola’s parent company.
The additional acquisition of 6.72% is made through Singapore-based Lazarus Holdings, a special purpose vehicle which will be used as an investment holding company.
The Cab aggregator founders had applied to the CCI for approval, last month.
The approval was sought for the indirect acquisition of less than 10% of the share capital of ANI Technologies by Ankit Bhati, Bhavish Aggarwal, along with MacRitchie, through Lazarus Holdings, from certain existing stakeholders of ANI Technologies.
MacRitchie Investments is an indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-based investment company Temasek Holdings.
According to Inc42, the shareholder selling their stake include some employees of Ola, along with angel investor Rehan Yar Khan, and venture capital investors who received shares in Ola after its acquisition of TaxiForSure in 2015.
This also includes investors such as VC firms Accel India, Bessemer Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners, and TaxiForSure founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Raghunandan G, who are making a partial exit from Ola.
Ola has been steadily expanding and growing as it competes with another cab hailing giant Uber, in India, and also globally.
It is to be noted that, earlier this month, Ola raised ₹362 crores from two new Chinese investors and announced its foray into the New Zealand market.
While Ola fiercely competes with Uber, for greater market share, in July 2018, the Indian cab aggregator started making money on each ride, as it eyes profitability.
In August 2018, Ola had expanded its cab-hailing business into the UK market.