Uber International Holdings BV and Uber BV, the Netherlands based entities of the ride-hailing company Uber, have infused USD 246 million into Uber India—the largest ever funding into its Indian entity—according to the company’s regulatory filings.
The fresh capital pumped in is much higher than the last funding round in 2017, when the Netherlands based entities had jointly put in USD 5.5 million into Uber India.
The latest development, comes in the wake of Uber having transferred its entire Indian ride sharing and Uber Eats business to the Indian entity Uber India System Pvt. Ltd. from its two Netherlands based entities. According to a valuation report of Uber’s India business sourced by company research platform Tofler, after the aforementioned business transfer, Uber India and Uber Eats India have been valued at USD 254 million and USD 99 million, respectively.
“We estimate that a large part of this allocation would go towards the Uber Eats business, therefore posing a direct challenge to other Indian food delivery companies such as Swiggy and Zomato,” Vivek Durai, founder of market research platform Paper.vc, told local media Business Standard.
Uber recently posted its largest-ever quarterly loss of USD 5.24 billion in the three months ending June 2019. Uber is looking at India as a savior to push the revenue numbers ahead as it seeks to maximize from one of its largest markets at present. Uber has invested about USD 2 billion in India till date.
The company is all set to launch its digital payment service with Uber Money in India by early 2020. India will be one of the first six countries where Uber Money would be launched in the next six to eight months. It also has plans for an intercity bus business that will pose a direct competition to the MakeMyTrip-owned RedBus.
Incidentally, Ola is in talks with Microsoft for USD 200 million funding at a valuation of USD 10 billion. Meanwhile, the Bengaluru-based ride-hailing major is countering Uber India by launching a slew of new products and services. Last month it launched ‘Ola Drive,’ a self-drive car-sharing service, with a target of 20,000 cars by 2020. Ola is loosening up its purse-strings to dedicate USD 200 million for Ola Drive initially and plans to up its investment here to USD 500 million in the next few years. It is also putting into action the launch of a variety of in-house food brands throughout India.
Uber founder Dara Khosrowshahi has reportedly said that from now on Uber’s growth will be defined by markets like India, Africa, and the Middle-East in the next 10 years.