Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, has invested an undisclosed amount in Ola Electric Mobility (OEM), the electric vehicles project of the ride hailing app. This investment, which is part of OEM's series A round of funding, is in Ratan Tata's personal capacity, the Bengaluru-based company said in a statement.
Tata is also an early investor in ANI Technologies, Ola's parent company. Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola said Tata has been a mentor to him personally, and an inspiration in shaping Ola's journey over the years.
"I'm very excited to welcome him on board Ola Electric as an investor and a mentor.... We are privileged to have his guidance and support once again, as we work towards our goal of a million electric vehicles in India by 2021," he added.
This year, in March, Ola Electrics had announced raising Rs 400 crore in a funding round led by Tiger Global and Matrix India.
OEM was initially established to enable Ola's electric mobility pilot programme in Nagpur in 2017. Last year, Ola announced 'Mission: Electric' to bring 1 million Electric Vehicles (EVs) on Indian roads by 2021.
Recently, Ola raised $300 million from South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motors along with its affiliate Kia Motors. As part of the deal, Hyundai plans to introduce its EVs in the cab fleet of Ola by 2021.
Led by Anand Shah, and Ankit Jain, Ola Electrics is currently running several pilots to deploy electric vehicles and charging solutions. In April, the company claimed that it would introduce a fleet of 10,000 electric vehicles over the next one year.
(With PTI inputs)
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