The Chinese technology giant is eyeing more overseas startups in a bid to diversify its investment portfolio.
Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent has agreed to invest $400 million in home-grown Indian cab-hailing platform Ola as part of its latest funding round, the Times of India reported on Saturday, citing documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
Ola raised the funds from Singapore-based Copper Technology Pte Ltd, an entity owned by Shenzhen-based Tencent, which will take a 9.57 percent stake in Ola.
The money raised from Tencent will “give a lot of firepower to Ola in its battle against Uber, and will also allow it to reduce SoftBank’s dominance in the company,” said the Times of India .
Ola has raised around $800 million since November 2016, and the latest round will take the total funding raised to $1.93 billion as of Sunday, which also pushes Ola’s valuation to $4.1 billion, several Indian reports suggest.
According to a Bloomberg report last week, Tencent’s new investment could be part of the $2 billion round of funding that Ola scored from several investors including Japan’s SoftBank Group — Ola’s largest investor — and China’s Tencent Holdings.
Ola is now a leader in the $10 billion Indian market despite mounting pressure from Uber, and the new funding will help the local firm “shore up its lead in India and build its supply of vehicles and drivers as well as technology to help it win against Uber”, Bloomberg said.
Tencent has been actively exploring investment opportunities in India, with a local report suggesting the Chinese company has already invested $850 million to $900 million in Indian startups that include ecommerce major Flipkart, messaging service Hike, and online healthcare services provider Practo.
