Vanguard slashes Bhavish-run Ola’s valuation by 52% at $3.5 bn: Report

Leading US asset manager Vanguard has further slashed its holding in ride-hailing major Ola by more than half, which takes Bhavish Aggarwal-run company’s valuation down to nearly $3.5 billion from $7.3 billion at the end of 2021, the media reported on Tuesday.

According to a TechCrunch report, citing Vanguard’s filings, the investment firm has cut the worth of its shares in Ani Technologies, Ola’s holding firm, by 51.6 per cent.

"The asset manager marked down the holding of its Ola shares to $25 million, from the $51.7 million purchase price years ago, the filings showed," according to the report.

Vanguard had valued its Ola’s shares at about $33.8 million in February this year. In May, Vanguard had slashed Ola's valuation by 35 per cent amid global macroeconomic conditions, reducing its valuation to about $4.8 billion.

Ola has raised more than $3.9 billion over the years, according to public data.

IPO-bound Ola Electric has also recorded an operating loss of $136 million (roughly Rs 1,116 crore) and revenue of $335 million (roughly Rs 2,750 crore), missing its revenue goal disclosed publicly.

The company reported sales of over 1,50,000 electric scooters for FY23, according to a Reuters report.

In the first two months of FY23, Ola Electric claimed to have surpassed Rs 500 crore in revenue and was on track to surpass $1 billion by year's end. In January, Ola laid off 200 employees from its Ola Cabs, Ola Electric and Ola Financial Services verticals as part of the "restructuring" exercise.

Ola joins a growing list of Indian unicorns who have significantly lost their valuations. Invesco lowered Swiggy’s valuation by almost half to $5.5 billion in earlier this year while leading US investment firm Fidelity reportedly slashed the estimated worth of its holding in homegrown conversational engagement platform Gupshup by over 20 per cent in a month.