Americans know Uber and perhaps Lyft. Europeans know Gett.
But in India, Ola is king. The ride-hailing service, the largest in the country, has reportedly raised nearly $226 million from Softbank, Tiger Global Management, and others. That puts its value at $5 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal—nearly twice as much as its previous valuation, pushing it way up on Coins2Day’s Unicorn List of billion-dollar startups.
Ola is run by ANI Technologies, headquartered in Mumbai. The startup wants to expand into more cities—it currently serves more than 100—and keep ahead of Uber, the worldwide category leader. Uber is currently in about two dozen cities in India.
Ola also announced on Monday that it would invest about $75 million in a car-leasing program in a bid to woo 100,000 additional drivers for its service by the end of 2016. Uber has a similar service.
Subscribe to Data Sheet, Coins2Day’s daily newsletter on the business of technology.
For on ride-hailing startups, watch this episode of Coins2Day Tech Debate: