Venture capital’s appetite for EV mobility startups shows no sign of satiation, as India’s electric-vehicle ride-sharing service Ola Electric Mobility gets a $250 million investment from SoftBank.
With the SoftBank investment, which Bloomberg said amounted to a 26% stake, Ola’s fundraising for the year tops $300 million. While interest in mobility companies runs high, India is expected to lag much of the world as only 6% of its vehicles are expected to be electric by 2030, according to Bloomberg BNEF.
- Ola garnered attention from investors as it topped Uber as India’s largest car-sharing service and its initiatives to go green with electric vehicles.
- Ola’s success in attracting investors follows Rappi, a Latin American on-demand delivery startup, which won a $1 billion investment from the Vision Fund in April, and Nuro, a robotics company producing autonomous delivery cars, which received a $940 million SoftBank investment in February.
- Newcomer Lime, a leader in electric bike sharing, brought in $300 million in May.
- Karma Takeaway: While well-established mobility companies like Uber hope to expand, ride-sharing startups including Ola are gaining more venture capital attention with their electric and go-green models.
