Sachin Bansal Eyes to Sell $100 Million Stake in Ola at Premium

Flipkart founder and entrepreneur Sachin Bansal is planning to sell his stake from Bhavish Aggarwal-backed Ola, sources said. Bansal invested $100 million in the ride-hailing platform in 2019.

Sources claim that Bansal has sought to exit his stake by valuing the company at around $4 billion. Though details were not published at the time of investment, the company was valued at around $3 billion.

Bansal and Aggarwal have built their own ventures and taken on rivals including Uber and Amazon in India.

Previously, Bansal exited his stake from the IPO-bound Ather Energy where he sold his stake to Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath, Economics Times reported.

Sources close to Bansal said that he has been solely focussing on Navi, a fintech platform and is looking forward to liquidating his holdings so that the retrieved funds can be used to build his startup. Bansal has also explored external fundraising for Navi, but the talks are yet to rectify.

A person reviewing the proposal said, “Yes, the deal has come to us. The idea being this could be an entry in Ola right before the IPO, but valuation at which Bansal agrees will be key to the deal.”

Struggles with Navi

Navi Finserv, a non-banking finance company (NBFC) came under fire after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked the NBCF to stop lending, though the restrictions were lifted on December 2. Bansal’s previous attempts to raise capital from Temasek fell apart as the central bank denied it a banking licence.