Ola to invest $500 mn for launching self-drive service

Ola, the homegrown ride-hailing platform, will invest more than $500 million to introduce a ‘self-drive’ service, targeted at broadening its portfolio of transportation solution. This investment will come from a mix of debt and equity over the next couple of years.

The Bangalore-headquartered company will be deploying nearly 10,000 vehicles, including luxury sedans and SUVs, in major cities in the coming months. 

An Ola spokesperson said, "Basis market feedback, we will pilot [the self-drive service] in various formats such as rentals, subscription and corporate leasing in select cities in the coming weeks."

Ola had announced investing $100 million in Vogo, a scooter-sharing platform, in December. This investment was made in order to build a smart multi-modal network for first-last mile connectivity in India.

In February, the ride-hailing platform was valued at roughly $6 billion during a funding. Ola has raised $3.67 billion till date.