Watch out Uber. Sachin Bansal gets Ola share after selling Flipkart

• Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal is pumping $91 million into the ride-hailing startup.
  
• Ola’s valuation stays at $5.7 billion.
  
• The cab-hailing app is reportedly looking to venture into the e-pharmacy segment too.

Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has reportedly made his first investment post his exit from the e-tail giant, pumping $91 million into Indian cab hailing unicorn Ola, which appears to be on a massive expansion spree.

Bansal announced his exit from Flipkart after its $16 billion acquisition by Walmart last year. Sachin Bansal, along with former Flipkart Group CEO Binny Bansal, famously grew Flipkart from a two-bedroom apartment business to one of India’s biggest e-retail giants. He reportedly sold his 5.5% stake for $1 billion in the sale

Bansal had initially pumped in $21million which got him 70,588 series J preferred shares at a price of ₹21,250 per share. The investment is said to be a part of Ola’s series J funding round.

Ola could be raising $2 billion in the round. Ola's current investors include the likes of Tencent, Softbank, Hong Kong-based Sailing Capital among others. It is also reportedly looking at raising money from Singapore-based Temasek.

However, with this investment, the valuation of the company stays the same at $5.7 billion. Bansal is reportedly putting in his own money, and not from the new $1 billion VC fund he is said to be raising. It will give Ola a financial heft in fighting its global rival Uber.

Not just a cab company

Ola, which has thus far focused on cab hailing, has been in a race to become India’s biggest startup and looking at venturing into other businesses. It has experimented with the Electric Vehicle market recently, bringing in 10,000 EV rickshaws on to Indian roads.

Earlier in 2015, the company also tried its hand in food delivery with Ola Cafe. However, it had to shut down operations in just a year. Later in 2017, Ola acquired food delivery startup Foodpanda to stay in the game.

Talks were also doing the rounds that Ola is also looking at entering the e-pharmacy segment with the acquisition of Bengaluru-based Myra Medicines.

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