Mr. Bansal, who has known Mr. Agarwal for more than a decade and whose companies have both built ventures in India to compete with U.S. rivals such as Uber and Amazon, discussed the proposal with him, the people said. . He said he has been in discussions with large family office groups and the private investment arm of investors active in the public markets.
As first reported by ET, Bansal’s move comes on the heels of him exiting one of his earlier bets, IPO-bound Other Energy, and selling his stake to Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath.
Bansal has been solely focused on his fintech venture Navi for the past year, close to the company, saying he is liquidating large holdings such as Ola to build a war chest for his startup. . He is seeking outside financing for Navi, but those negotiations have not yet materialized.
“Yes, the deal has come to us,” said a person who reviewed the idea. “There is a possibility of entering Ola just before the IPO, but the valuation that Bansal agrees to will be key to the deal.” Ta.
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Officials say Bansal is open to negotiating the valuation, but emails sent to Bansal, Nabi and Ola did not elicit any response on the matter by press time on Monday. There wasn’t.
Navi hurdle
ET reported that Bansal’s Navi was in talks to raise external capital but faced regulatory hurdles.
Navi Finserv, the non-banking financial services arm, was asked to suspend lending by the central bank in October, but the restrictions were lifted on December 2. Previous attempts by Bansal-led Nabi to raise capital from Temasek failed after the Reserve Bank was set up. The Indian government denied a banking license.
In April last year, ET reported that Bansal had discussed plans to raise funds at a valuation of $2 billion for Navi after its banking aspirations fell through. After exiting Flipkart in 2018, Bansal invested most of his personal capital in fintech ventures, where he sold a 5% stake to Walmart for $1 billion.
evaluation key
Managed by Bengaluru-based ANI Technologies, Ola plans to go public by this year or the next financial year ending in March 2026. The company’s investors also recently discussed plans with the company to participate in an IPO, including selling shares.
“There are plans for an IPO, but the details have not yet been finalized and new investors will want more clarity on that to understand the possibility of an exit,” said another aware of the discussions. the official said.
Ola’s valuation has been lowered by investors in recent months. Vanguard values Ola at $2 billion as of August 2024. That’s down sharply from its peak of $7.3 billion in 2021, when the company raised $139 million in new funding. The business has undergone major changes since Covid-19, with founder Agarwal announcing the rebranding of Ola to Ola Consumer on Independence Day last year.
In addition to launching its own dark store as a service business to ride the wave of quick commerce in the country, the company is also actively working on grocery and food delivery through ONDC for a broader consumer audience. The company positions itself as an Internet company.
In FY23, ANI Technologies reported a loss of Rs 1,082 crore, about a third of the previous year. Revenue increased by 58% to Rs 2,135 million. The financial report for FY24 is yet to be filed with the Registrar of Companies.
