Ola Electric raises Rs 100 Cr debt ahead of IPO

IPO-bound Ola Electric has raised Rs 100 crore (approximately $12 million) in debt from Alteria Capital. This is the second round of debt funding for the Bengaluru-based company in 2024.

The board at Ola Electric has passed a special resolution to issue 10,000 non-convertible dentures at an issue price of Rs 1,00,00 each to raise Rs 100 crore, its regulatory filings accessed from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) show.

The development comes after two months of its $50 million debt funding from EvolutionX.

According to the filings, the debentures have an interest rate of 13.8% per annum with an additional 2% interest per month over and above the coupon rate, in case of default of interest.

As per the startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, the Bhavish Aggarwal-led company has raised more than $1 billion across equity and debt and was valued at $5.4 billion during the last round.

In December 2023, Ola Electric filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Security Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for an initial public offering (IPO) to raise Rs 5,500 crore ($660 million).  As per media reports, the company has also received a green signal from market regulator SEBI for the public listing.

Based on the DRHP filed by Ola Electric, Bhavish Aggarwal is the largest stakeholder with 36.94% followed by Soft Bank which commands 21.98% of the company. Tiger Global, Indus Trust, and Alpha Wave own 6.03%, 3.85% and 3.49%, respectively.

Ola Electric grew at a rapid clip in FY23 which could be evident from its revenue that surged seven-fold to Rs 2,631 crore as compared to Rs 373 crore in FY22. Meanwhile, its losses increased by 87.76% to Rs 1,472 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2023.

In the two-wheeler electric vehicles segment, the SoftBank-backed company competes with Hero Electric, Ather Energy, TVS, among others. As per Vahan data, Ola Electric controls 49% market share in two-wheeler EVs with 37,191 e-scooter registrations in May.