Ola invest Rs 100cr into its car leasing business

Cab aggregator Ola has invested Rs 100 crore in its car leasing arm Ola Fleet Technologies, according to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

The proposal for Ola investing additional money into Ola Fleet Technologies was accepted by the board of the car leasing arm last month adding on to the Rs 50 crore, cab-aggregator invested in its leasing subsidiary in February this year.

In 2015, Ola had announced setting up of a captive leasing subsidiary to finance cars to be added to its platform and had announced an investment of Rs 5,000 crore. Through Ola Fleet Technologies, the Bangalore-based firm focuses on building its own fleet and skilling drivers.

Under the programme, drivers could lease a car for a minimal initial deposit and then pay monthly lease payments with an option to own the vehicle after a period of three years.

Notably, Ola Fleet posted a loss of Rs 13.3 crore for FY16 compared to a profit of Rs 3.9 crore in the previous year. Ola, for its own business, posted a consolidated loss of over Rs 2,311 crore - about Rs 6 crore a day - during fiscal 2015-16. However, despite the losses, SoftBank pumped in fresh funding to the tune of Rs1,675 crore into Ola in April this year.

Ola’s VP of strategic supply initiatives, Rahul Maroli was initially heading the leasing business. In January this year, Ola appointed Shalabh Seth as the CEO of Ola Fleet Technologies, and made him responsible for supply and growth through leasing and other driver focused initiatives.