Microsoft may invest $50-100 million in Ola's parent company ANI Technologies

Microsoft is likely to invest $50-100 million (Rs 320-640 crore) in Ola's parent company ANI Technologies, according to a Livemint report. The deal could see Ola switch to Microsoft's Azure cloud platform instead of Amazon Web Services(AWS).

Microsoft's move comes at a time when Ola is trying to raise funds after a sharp drop of over $1 billion in its pre-money valuation in September 2015. This deal would also help Microsoft make deeper inroads into India's cloud market, where it is locked in a fight for supremacy with Google, IBM and AWS. At the same time, it would help Ola raise funds.

“The talks with Ola are in very early stages. More than the money, it is more about Nadella’s vision of partnering with more and more large technology companies in India and establish Azure as service of preference. Microsoft is likely to invest in Ola but a term sheet is yet to be issued,” the report cited one person as saying.

The Redmond based company has been lately promoting its cloud computing service Microsoft Azure for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services in India. In February, it announced a strategic cloud partnership with Flipkart, whereby the online retail adopted Azure as its sole public cloud computing platform. In addition, the IT giant also helped Flipkart raise $1.4 billion.

The ride hailing company is in need of funds for the losses incurred due to the heavy discounts to customers and drivers. While Ola reported a seven-fold jump in revenue to Rs 758.23 crore, its losses too tripled to Rs 2,313.7 crore in 2016.