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<keyword id="2857463" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Didi-Kuaidi">Didi Kuaidi</keyword>, Ola’s investor and Uber’s Chinese rival, is close to raising $2 billion in the next funding, the Chinese transportation network company headquartered in Beijing, will soon raise $2 billion investment at a valuation of $25 billion, say reports from Bloomberg. The ongoing funding round will be closed in the coming few weeks. 
 
Didi Kuaidi, which has invested in India's largest taxi aggregator Ola, is a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Uber-made-a-move-for-Chinese-users-that-could-finally-blow-its-competition-out-of-the-water/articleshow/52087556.cms">Chinese rival </a>of Ola’s biggest Indian <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Uber-v/s-Ola-Ola-plays-really-dirty-or-so-says-Uber/articleshow/52044387.cms">competitor Uber</a>. 
 
Didi Kuaidi, Ola, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Lyft-gets-500-mn-ammunition-from-General-Motors-to-drive-out-Uber/articleshow/50450468.cms">Lyft </a>and GrabTaxi collectively form a global alliance and share customers across continents. It means that in future, an Ola customer would be able to hail taxis in China, South-East Asia, or the United States using the same app installed in his smartphone. 
 
Didi Kuaidi finds its investors in Japanese internet corporation <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/SoftBank-slams-bid-to-sack-Nikesh-Arora-after-investors-accuse-him-of-wrongdoing/articleshow/51928646.cms">SoftBank</a>, Chinese e-commerce giant <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Alibaba-Founder-Jack-Ma-and-his-crazy-Managementstyle-every-startup-founder-must-follow/articleshow/52008269.cms">Alibaba </a>and the Chinese Internet conglomerate Tencent. 
 
<a href="http://images.en.yibada.com/data/images/full/36823/didi-kuaidi-chinas-leading-taxi-hailing-app-unveils-its-carpooling-feature-for-urban-commuters.jpg">Image source</a>

Didi Kuaidi, Ola’s investor and Uber’s Chinese rival, is close to raising $2 billion in the next funding

The Indian taxi provider, <keyword id="6354720" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ola">Ola</keyword> cab’s fundraising activity is being noticed by foreign investors China, Scotland as well as United States. 
 Chinese leading cab aggregator, <keyword id="2857463" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Didi-Kuaidi">Didi Kuaidi</keyword> will be putting in around $30 million. Not just this but Ola might have US hedge fund <keyword id="4675629" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Meru-Capital">Meru Capital</keyword> and Scottish investment firm <keyword id="3069934" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Baille-Gifford">Baille Gifford</keyword> as its new investors, as per The Economic Times. 
 If sources are to be believed, Ola is in advanced talks to close fundraising of about $500 million (Rs 3,000 crore) at a valuation above $5 billion. In its new round of <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword>, Falcon Edge and GIC Singapore could emerge as the biggest investors. 
 
Ola is also in talks with New York-based Meru Capital and Scottish investment firm Baille Gifford for funding. 
 
Official sources, requesting anonymity said, "The investors in the round are still being finalised and it is getting oversubscribed, so it may be expanded a bit." 
 
The company’s CEO bhavish Aggarwal, however, didn’t respond to an email query sent to him but he said that the “company is not looking to raise more funding as it does not want to dilute more than 10%." 
 
For the funding round, the company initially estimated a valuation of $4.5 billion before the investment but is now expected to increase it to around $5 billion, depending on the final amount it raises. 
 Japan’s <keyword id="163404" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Softbank">SoftBank</keyword>, also an investor in Didi Kuaidi, in October 2014 valued Ola at around $650 million. 
 Official sources, on condition of anonymity, said that Ola is raising funds in two separate activities with the first raising Rs 1,478 crore included investors like <keyword id="4675626" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Falcon-Edge-Capital">Falcon Edge Capital</keyword>, which put in Rs 515 crore, and Tiger Global, which invested Rs 397 crore and SoftBank put in Rs 384 crore. 
 
The existing investors DST Global and GIC, which didn’t participated in the first round, might join in the second round. 
 The new investors for the first round included Parkwood Bespin and <keyword id="3069933" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="JS-Capital">JS Capital</keyword>, besides Facebook Asia vice president <keyword id="368765" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dan-Neary">Dan Neary</keyword>. 
 
The investment from Didi Kuaidi, which recently raised $3 billion in one of the largest funding rounds globally, is significant as the Chinese firm has picked up stakes also in Singapore's Grabtaxi and Lyft, both Uber competitors in their respective markets. 
 Ola is expected to cross annual gross revenue run rate of $1 billion by the end of the year, boosted in part by its $200-million acquisition of rival <keyword id="1428790" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="TaxiforSure">TaxiForSure</keyword>, whose revenue has doubled since the deal closed in March. Ola has raised about $700 million overall.

Ola Cabs’ new round of fund raising to value it above $5 billion

Didi Kuaidi, China's largest taxi aggregator app, which is backed by internet behemoth Alibaba, would soon invest in homegrown Ola, thus making the <keyword id="1042120" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Uber">Uber</keyword> vs Ola battle bloodier than before. 

	Didi's investment in Bangalore-headquartered Ola comes close on the heels of it picking up stakes in San Francisco-based Lyft and Malaysia's GrabTaxi, signalling a global alliance against the cashrich Uber.
 People close to the development told TOI that Ola, formerly Olacabs, is finalizing the second tranche of $200 million of its $500 million financing round led by GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, Didi Kuaidi, and <keyword id="2649768" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Baillie-Gifford">Baillie Gifford</keyword>, a Scottish investment firm which is a shareholder in Flipkart, valuing the Indian cab-hailing app at $5 billion. 

	GIC, which put in a small amount when Ola scored $400 million led by DST Global earlier this year, is expected to pump as much as $100 million this time around while Didi mayinvest around $30 million. Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's DST Global is also likely to participate in the latest round, sources said. TOI had reported first, in its August 10 edition, about New York-based hedge fund FalconEdge, Softbank Corp and Tiger Global putting the first chunk of $300 million into Ola. Separate email queries sent by TOI regarding the financing round to Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder &amp; CEO of Ola, Didi Kuaidi and GIC did not elicit a response till the time of going to press. A spokesperson for Baillie Gifford said, "I am afraid that on this occasion we will not be able to offer any comment."
 

	"There's a lot of interest in this round and it may even get oversubscribed. As of now it's likely to close at $500 million.Things are still to be worked out fully," said a person privy to the matter. Even as Ola builds a bigger war chest, there has been talk of the Travis Ka lanick-led Uber looking to raise $1billion for India separately, just like it racked up $1.2 billion for China recently , two markets which are of enormous significance for the company . Uber, the most-valued tech startup worldwide at $51billion, also became the youngest privately-held company to cross the $50 billion valuation mark, beating Facebook's record in July this year.
 Despite being buffeted by regulatory hurdles, both Ola and Uber have been aggressively rolling out new services, discounting, announcing millions in investments along with introducing driver initiatives as competition to corner market share intensifies in Asia's third largest economy which has seen smartpho ne usage grow exponentially .The five-year-old Ola, which came to life in Mumbai, presently leads the domestic taxi app market and claims to be doing as many as 750,000 rides a day while Uber, while announcing its $1 billion investment plan for India, said that it aims to touch 1million rides over the next 9 months from the present 200,000. Ola's pole position got cemented earlier this year when it acquired its smaller rival TaxiForSure . A month before Ola acqui red TFS in India, China's largest taxi-hailing app <keyword id="2677023" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Didi-Dache">Didi Dache</keyword> merged with its closest competitor Kuaidi Dache, backed by internet conglomerate Tencent Holdings and in vestors like Alibaba, SoftBank and Tiger Global, to form a $6-billion transportation powerhouse. Didi Kuaidi is valued at $16 billion and is Uber's biggest competitor worldwide, having raised $4.4 billion in investor money. The Chinese taxi app has been aligning all of Uber's rivals to fight the startup which is spread across 300 cities globally. 
	 
	(Image credits: Indiatimes)

Ola-Didi Kuaidi to take on Uber together

World’s largest taxi hailing apps, including <keyword id="6354720" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ola">Ola</keyword>, are doing everything to stop <keyword id="1042120" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Uber">Uber</keyword>’s bandwagon. 
 India-based Ola, China-based <keyword id="2857463" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Didi-Kuaidi">Didi Kuaidi</keyword>, US’ <keyword id="6362418" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="lyft">Lyft</keyword> and Malaysia-based <keyword id="2196710" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="GrabTaxi">GrabTaxi</keyword> have entered into a partnership to counter Uber. 
 
This move will allow passengers to book rides on any of these services using just one app! 
 
This means if an Ola customer who travels to China, South East Asia, or the US, can book a taxi using the same app. 
 
All this effort by the world’s best taxi aggregators is to tackle the global reach of their main rival-Uber. 
 
"This will be a win for the diversity and vitality of the global ridesharing industry," said Cheng Wei, CEO of Didi Kuaidi. 
 
Ola, Didi Kuaidi, and Grab-Taxi have SoftBank’s backing, while Lyft has funding from Alibaba. 
 
As per reports, joint partner products will start rolling out in Q1 of 2016 and each country will handle mapping, routing and payments through a secure system across countries. 
 
Meanwhile, Uber plans to invest $1 billion India and expand its services. Uber operates in 57 countries, with an estimated value of more than $40 billion. 
 
(Image: thinkstock)

Its World vs Uber: Ola ties up with 3 of the world’s largest taxi hailing apps!

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Japan's SoftBank has led a round of funding in the most popular taxi app in China, Kuaidi Dache.
<a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a4708592-9c64-11e4-b9f8-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3OsxJqvds">The Financial Times reports that SoftBank led a $600 million investment</a> in the Chinese company, which dominates the country's taxi app market.
Kuaidi Dache has over 50% of the market in China, ahead of its rival Didi Dache.
Uber doesn't have a stronghold in China yet. It only started operations in the country's capital last year. 
SoftBank makes a huge amount of investments in tech companies. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/softbank-is-investing-250-million-in-uber-rival-grabtaxi-2014-12">In December it invested $250 million</a> in GrabTaxi, Uber's biggest rival in countries like Vietnam and Thailand.
One of SoftBank's most well-known investments is in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. SoftBank is the company's largest investor.

SoftBank Is Investing In China's Biggest Taxi App

Cab aggregator <keyword id="6354720" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Ola">Ola</keyword> has raised $500 million led by Baillie Gifford, Falcon Edge Capital, Tiger Global, <keyword id="163404" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Softbank">SoftBank</keyword> Group, DST Global and China's biggest <keyword id="2621589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Taxi-aggregator">taxi aggregator</keyword> Didi Kuaidi. 
 
Commenting on the funding, Bhavish Aggarwal, cofounder and CEO, Ola told ET, “We are excited about bringing onboard partners who can help us get there faster." 
The investment will be used to fuel supply initiatives, build supply capacity and to go deeper into existing markets. 
 Ola competes with San Francisco based <keyword id="1042120" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Uber">Uber</keyword> in India and it’s been reported that the gap between these two largest ride hailing platforms is slowly shrinking with both eyeing the leadership position on Indian roads and spending millions of dollars to achieve so. 
 
Ola has closed over $1.3 billion of funding, of which about $1.2 billion has been raised over the past year. San Francisco based Uber in July announced that over nine months it would invest $1 billion (about Rs 6,400 crore) in the country, its largest market outside the United States. 
 
Image credit: Indiatimes

Taxi hailing app, Ola raises $500 million from Tiger Global, SoftBank and others

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Kim Kyung-HoonUber CEO Travis Kalanick</div></div></div>Earlier this week, Didi Kuaidi - Uber's biggest competitor in China - and Lyft, Uber's biggest US rival, announced the two companies were teaming up to take on Uber.The strategic partnership will let the companies share technology, product development, and local resources, and when US users of Lyft go to China (or when Didi users come visit the US), they'll be able to pay in their native currency on each app.At a press conference earlier this week, Lyft founder and president John Zimmer called the partnership "the first step toward global coverage." It's no secret that this partnership is intended to let the companies overtake Uber.<h3>Taking on Uber</h3>Uber has been heralded as a ride-hailing giant; as of June, the company operated in 311 cities in 58 countries globally. And Uber has been investing heavily in China. Uber's China branch <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-rival-didi-kuaidi-just-raised-3-billion-2015-9">recently closed a $1.2 billion round of funding</a>. Uber is aggressively expanding its Chinese footprint, with plans to operate in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-uber-to-enter-100-new-chinese-cities-in-next-12-months-ceo-2015-9">100 more cities in the country in the next year</a>. And Uber's top three most popular cities - Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Chengdu - are all in China. Uber's service is taking off in China much faster than it did in the US; nine months after launching in Chengdu, Uber had <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/leaked-graph-shows-uber-meteoric-growth-china-investors-2015-6#ixzz3d8ZMOAyu">479 times</a> the trips it had in New York after the same amount of time. Up until this partnership was announced, Lyft did not seem a formidable enemy to Uber. Lyft operates domestically and, although it is valued at an impressive $2 billion, that still pales in comparison to Uber's aggressive, international expansion and eye-popping $51 billion valuation.But now that Lyft has teamed up with Didi, the two companies seem better suited to take on Uber. Didi recently <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-china-rival-didi-kuaidi-raises-3-billion-2015-9">closed a $3 billion round of venture capital funding</a>, and it's valued at $15 billion, so it's well-equipped financially - in total, Didi Kuaidi has amassed a $4 billion war chest of venture capital funding. Didi Kuaidi was created in February when competing apps Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache merged to cut the costs of competing with each other - and more importantly, with Uber. Didi's finances have also come into question. The company is losing buckets of money, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ubers-main-competitor-in-china-is-losing-buckets-of-money-2015-9">according to leaked financial documents</a> surfaced by the Financial Times.<h3>Forming a global alliance</h3>In addition to just the US and China, the Lyft-Didi partnership could signal an aggressive plan for taking on ride-hailing at a global scale. If you're bullish on Uber and don't believe in a ride-hailing market big enough for two players, that plan may sound crazy. But Lyft and Didi's approach has something Uber's doesn't. US-based Lyft can now reach Chinese customers through an app native to their own country. Some of Uber's backlash in Asia stems from the fact that Uber is not a service native to Asia, and has subsequently struggled with adapting its service to suit laws in these countries. In fact, South Korea <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/05/us-uber-southkorea-idUSKBN0L903N20150205">has vowed to shut down Uber's operations in the country</a>. As TechCrunch notes, "Korean law doesn't allow technology companies to store payment data as part of their purchase workflow, but instead requires consumers to retype their information with every purchase, ostensibly for security reasons."But this global alliance against Uber could extend beyond just the US and China, ostensibly giving Uber a run for its money. <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-rivals-form-international-alliance-1442429031">According to The Wall Street Journal,</a> Lyft and Didi are in talks to expand their alliance with other Asian ride-hailing companies: India's Ola and Singapore's GrabTaxi.Ths isn't entirely unexpected. Earlier this year, <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/johanabhuiyan/global-taxi-alliance#.fegJBaZmq">BuzzFeed News reported</a> that Softbank Capital, which has funded on-demand ride-hailing startups GrabTaxi and Ola, was behind a global alliance to take on Uber. Executives at both GrabTaxi and Ola, which are Asia-based companies that use taxis instead of private drivers, told BuzzFeed News they were working on "forming a global alliance of regional players."Didi Kuaidi invested $100 million in Lyft months prior to the two companies' partnership. Didi Kuaidi has also invested in GrabTaxi. So it's easy to see how the partnership could extend to Singapore - where GrabTaxi is based - and to Ola, which is Uber's main Indian rival. So besides the US and China, an expanded partnership would let Lyft, Didi, and its potential new partners - GrabTaxi and Ola -operate in India, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines. This would provide a distinct advantage to Lyft/Didi/Ola/GrabTaxi over Uber as GrabTaxi already operates in regional cities that Uber doesn't, like Thailand's Chiang Rai and Malaysia's Kuching.At the press conference earlier this week, Zimmer declined to comment on adding more companies to its partnership. "We'll announce different parts of our global strategy down the road," he said. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-made-billions-2015-7">The insanely successful life of Uber billionaire Travis Kalanick</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="xwY2lmdjrD0sKNXKjphpxxEqtRvRDYXG" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

There's a global alliance forming to stop Uber's world domination

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Uber is increasingly ubiquitous around the world. Now, the ride-hailing giant - <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/uber">backed by $5.9 billion in venture capital funding</a> - operates in 55 countries and 200 cities around the world.But there's still one area of the world Uber needs to work on before it can truly achieve international status.Last December, Uber raised a massive <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-just-raised-12-billion-2014-12">$1.2 billion</a> round of funding. It was intended to allow Uber to "make significant investments, particularly in the Asia Pacific region."Earlier this year, <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/johanabhuiyan/global-taxi-alliance#.fegJBaZmq">BuzzFeed News reported</a> that Softbank Capital, which has funded on-demand ride-hailing startups GrabTaxi and OlaCabs, was behind a global alliance to take on Uber. Since then, two other huge Asian taxi-hailing companies - Kuaidi Dache, which is funded by Alibaba, and Didi Dache, funded by Tencent - have merged, consolidating the power of Asia-based car-hailing companies. And though Uber operates in a number of Asian markets, including Beijing, Bangkok, and Tokyo, Uber has faced other legal hurdles in Asia. South Korea <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/south-korea-charges-uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-2015-3">has charged Uber CEO Travis Kalanick with operating an "illegal" taxi service,</a> and has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/south-korea-charges-uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-2015-3">vowed to shut down Uber's operations in the country</a>. As TechCrunch notes, "Korean law doesn't allow technology companies to store payment data as part of their purchase workflow, but instead requires consumers to retype their information with every purchase, ostensibly for security reasons."Earlier this month, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-offices-in-guangzhou-china-raided-by-police-2015-5">Uber's China offices were raided by police</a> in what was described as a crackdown on ride hailing apps. China's taxi market is largely state-owned, and <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com/chinese-authorities-raid-uber-office-guangzhou-amid-crackdown-ride-booking-apps-1904413">the International Business Times reports</a> some Chinese citizens have been angered by taxi drivers opting to switch over to apps like Uber, because it makes it more difficult to simply hail a cab on the street.But it's not just the Asia Pacific area that Uber needs to worry about. It's India, too.OlaCabs, an Uber rival native to India, <a href="http://graphics.wsj.com/billion-dollar-club/?co=Ola%20Cabs">has a $2.5 billion valuation</a> and the trust of the Indian people, another obstacle Uber has to overcome in its international expansion. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-31052849">Allegations of an Uber driver raping a female passenger</a> in India in 2014 have led some Indians to be wary of Uber's services and have <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-12-09/ubers-problems-in-india-wont-go-away-any-time-soon">prompted protests against Uber's services</a> across the country.Uber has already worked to address these issues, though. Uber has customized its Indian experience, <a href="http://blog.uber.com/SOSAlert">adding an in-app panic button option</a> that alerts police to your location, as well as introducing <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/04/09/398563088/uber-launches-cash-only-rickshaw-service-in-indian-capital">rickshaws and cash payment options</a> for its Indian customers. Uber certainly already has a leg up on its US rivals: Lyft, perhaps its closest competitor, hasn't even expanded outside the States yet. But if Uber wants to achieve global expansion, it needs to work within the legal regulations in the Asia Pacific area as well as work to make its Indian customers happy. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mathematical-breakdown-uber-vs-taxis-money-transportation-2015-4">We did the math: Is Uber really cheaper than a taxi? </a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Zmc3Z1cDoefsaxh4d9RwdpJj_TkDZlTs" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

The one part of the world Uber has yet to conquer

Ola’s growth in India has been massive, skyrocketing and exemplary for many startups. Taxi app Ola has become the third-most valuable venture-backed company in India after snagging funding of $400 million, or Rs 2,500 crore, from a consortium of investors. From being a basic taxi hailing app to becoming third-most valuable venture-backed company in India, Ola’s growth trajectory involves many fold of an untold story. 
 As per a news report by The Economic Times, valued at $2.4 billion (Rs 15,600 crore), the Bengaluru-based company said it will use the money to expand to new locations and diversify into new business areas as it looks to consolidate its lead in the cab-aggregation markafter buying rival <keyword id="1428790" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="TaxiforSure">TaxiForSure</keyword> last month. "We will scale up rapidly and double our products and engineering team to about 1,000 in the next quarter," Bhavish Aggarwal, an IIT-Bombay alumnus who claimed the merged entity now commands an 80% share of the market told the financial daily. 
 
Only online marketplaces Flipkart and Snapdeal are valued above Ola, but the company is competing against Uber, one of the most exciting startups in world. Although it is much smaller than Ola in India, Uber-it is the second-most valuable startup in the world at $41 billion after Chinese handset maker Xiaomi-has deep pockets and has expressed its commitment to stay the course in India. 
 Russian billionaire Yuri Milner's DST Global, Singapore's state investment arm GIC and New York-based hedge fund <keyword id="60126" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Falcon">Falcon</keyword> Edge Capital were joined by Ola's existing investors in the latest funding round. The company last raised capital in October 2014 when it received $210 million, led by Japan's SoftBank when it bagged a valuation of about $650 million. 
 
"Our growth has been strong and we have a very strong market leadership position, which are key reasons for our investors being so supportive," said Aggarwal, 29, who teamed up with collegemate Ankit Bhati to launch the firm in 2011. 
 At the end of March, Aggarwal owned 12% in <keyword id="2200842" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ANI-Technologies">ANI Technologies</keyword>, the parent company of Ola, and Bhati 5%, according to investor documents accessed by ET. 
 
For Uber, India will be crucial because it has a minuscule share of the Chinese taxi app market dominated by the combine of Didi Dache-Kuaidi Dache, which is valued at $8.75 billion and counts Alibaba and Soft-Bank as investors. 
 
For cab-hailing apps in India, the biggest concerns don't relate to the market-industry estimates peg it at around Rs 60,000 crore, of which only 4-6 % is organised--but the regulatory environment. Officially, Ola and Uber are both banned in Delhi and the government is yet to come up with rules that will govern their services. 
 
A statement on Thursday said it will use the latest round of funding to expand cab aggregation services in about 200 smaller towns and cities. About one-fourth of the capital will be used to grow business at TaxiForSure. Ola has also been experimenting with logistics services and has introduced delivery of meals from restaurants on its app last month. Analysts are of the view that while the valuation bagged by Ola is supported by business plans, it is also influenced by overwhelming sentiment in favour of consumer internet ventures worldwide. "Half is the business plan and the valuation attached to that, and the remaining 50% is all about the sentiment of ecommerce ventures," Jeenendra Bhandari, partner of accounting firm MGB &amp; Co. LLP told the ET. It's not only the bigger internet companies that are attracting a high price. Even at the seed and first round venture funding, investors are valuing companies at four times the investment amount. 
 
(Image : Reuters)

Ola cab is in top gear! It’s the third-most valuable venture-backed company in India

3 reasons why Uber will win in the end

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Uber is <a href="https://www.uber.com/jobs/58927">hiring a product manager</a> to build its recruiting platform - "a series of products and systems that will help Uber attract the best talent in the world."In its latest job posting, Uber says it wants to add "tens of thousands" more employees in the next few years.By itself, this isn't news. But it's significant that Uber is scaling so rapidly, and could be a sign of things to come for the ride-hailing company. (Also, it should be noted that "employees" refers to people who work for the company itself - drivers, which <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/01/22/now-we-know-many-drivers-uber-has-and-how-much-money-theyre-making%E2%80%8B/">numbered 162,037 in December</a> and have presumably grown since then, don't count).Uber <a href="https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/uber">has raised $5.9 billion</a> in venture capital funding to date, valuing the company at more than $40 billion.And the company doesn't seem to be done raising money yet, either: a report last week says Uber is <a href="http://www.wsj.com/article_email/uber-plans-large-new-funding-round-1431137142-lMyQjAxMTA1NzA0ODkwODgwWj">looking to raise an additional $1.5 billion to $2 billion more</a>, which would make Uber the most highly valued private tech company of all time, at over $50 billion.Right now, Uber offers its ride-hailing service in 55 countries and more than 200 cities globally. But ride-hailing isn't the full extent of what Uber can offer. Last week, Uber <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/08/business/uber-joins-the-bidding-for-here-nokias-digital-mapping-service.html">submitted a bid to buy Nokia's mapping product, Here.</a> The move would be yet another divorce from its investor Google for the company, since right now Uber relies on Google Maps technology for its mapping.Buying Here would allow the company to have its own mapping software and data, which would help Uber's central driving business, but also its other logistics- related endeavors including UberFresh, its food delivery service, and UberPool, its carpooling service. In the past, Uber has offered other logistics solutions in select markets, like UberRush, a courier service, and <a href="http://blog.uber.com/essentials">UberESSENTIALS</a>, a service that delivers anything you could possibly imagine getting from a corner store or pharmacy. But Uber needs more employees if it wants to scale beyond ride-sharing and enter the logistics and delivery marketplace. It also needs more people to help it scale operations internationally - especially when it comes to the Indian and Asian markets, where the company has formidable rivals. Uber's December fundraising round - in which Uber raised a massive <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-just-raised-12-billion-2014-12">$1.2 billion</a> - was intended to allow Uber to "make significant investments, particularly in the Asia Pacific region."<a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/johanabhuiyan/global-taxi-alliance#.fegJBaZmq">BuzzFeed News previously reported</a> that Softbank Capital, which has funded on-demand ride-hailing startups GrabTaxi and OlaCabs, was behind a global alliance to take on Uber. Since then, two other huge Asian taxi-hailing companies - Kuaidi Dache, which is funded by Alibaba, and Didi Dache, funded by Tencent - have merged, consolidating the power of Asia-based car-hailing companies. And though Uber operates in a number of Asian markets, including Beijing, Bangkok, and Tokyo, Uber has faced other legal hurdles in Asia. South Korea <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/south-korea-charges-uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-2015-3">has charged Uber CEO Travis Kalanick with operating an "illegal" taxi service,</a> and has <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/south-korea-charges-uber-ceo-travis-kalanick-2015-3">vowed to shut down Uber's operations in the country</a>. As TechCrunch notes, "Korean law doesn't allow technology companies to store payment data as part of their purchase workflow, but instead requires consumers to retype their information with every purchase, ostensibly for security reasons."OlaCabs, an Uber rival native to India, <a href="http://graphics.wsj.com/billion-dollar-club/?co=Ola%20Cabs">has a $2.5 billion valuation</a> and the trust of the Indian people, another obstacle Uber has to overcome in its international expansion. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-31052849">Allegations of an Uber driver raping a female passenger</a> in India in 2014 have led some Indians to be wary of Uber's services. This has prompted Uber to customize its Indian experience, <a href="http://blog.uber.com/SOSAlert">adding an in-app panic button option</a> that alerts police to your location, as well as introducing <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/04/09/398563088/uber-launches-cash-only-rickshaw-service-in-indian-capital">rickshaws and cash payment options</a> for its Indian customers. By putting more boots on the ground, Uber can help expand - and manage - its international footstep, as well as expand from its car-hailing service to more on-demand services in the logistics and delivery markets. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ubereats-uber-meals-takeout-delivery-fast-food-2015-5">Uber has a new ad that promises to change everything about the food delivery game</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="tqNHEwdTolIbwDtgvqcm5scz0fRqtZ9x" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

You Searched For "Didi Kuaidi SoftBank" and got 11 results

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