Sachin Bansal not a part of board, but an individual investor, clarifies Ola

Denying media reports on Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal taking a seat in Ola board amid his investments in the ride-hailing company, Ola has denied his role in its board. "Sachin Bansal is not going to be a part of the Ola board, rather he is an investor in his individual capacity," it clarified in an email to Business Today.

Bansal who has made more than $ 1 billion by selling his 5.5 per cent stake in Flipkart last year during Walmart-Flipkart deal is looking at investing heavily in startups and has even set up a new holding company, BAC Acquisitions Pvt Ltd  for this purpose.

Flipkart co-founder has invested Rs 650 crore in ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd which operates Ola. He has already invested about $21 million (Rs 150 crore) in the company and has committed to more investments in the cab aggregator in future. Bansal's total investments in the ride-hailing app stand at about $92 million (Rs 650 crore).

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His latest rounds of investments in Ola are seen by many as bolstering his ties with Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder & CEO of the company who is also an old friend of Bansal.

Aggarwal has been locked in a long-drawn boardroom battle with its largest shareholder SoftBank, since 2017 and is scouting for other investors to get more of them onboard. He even added a clause in Ola's articles of association to avert any move by the Japanese investor from buying more shares in the company without approval from its founders and board.

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