Ratan Tata's venture capital fund makes maiden Rs 400-cr investment in Ola

Ola has built itself a war chest of around Rs 325 cr to take on global rival Uber

RNT Capital Advisors, the venture capital firm floated by Tata Group Chairman emeritus Ratan Tata, has made its maiden investment of Rs 400 crore in India’s largest taxi aggregator Ola.

The investment will also see the University of California (UC) becoming a backer of Ola, after RNT Capital Advisors onboard it as a Limited Partner (LP) last year. This would also be the first investment for the Rs 65,000 crore fund of UC fund in India.

With the investment, Ola has built itself a war chest of around Rs 325 crore to take on global rival Uber, according to sources with the knowledge of the matter. The UC fund, which makes 10-15 year bets could give Ola to get access to long-term capital and also technology from university-funded labs in California.

Ratan Tata has invested in over a dozen startups such as Snapdeal, Paytm, Urban Ladder, Xiaomi and Ola among others in his personal capacity. He is also an advisor on the board of other venture capital firms such as Kalaari Capital, IDG Ventures, and has jointly invested with them in companies in the past.

RNT’s investment in Ola is part of the $330 million funding round that was led by Japanese investment firm Softbank late last year. Apart from these two investors, Falcon Edge Capital returned to invest around Rs 26 crore into Ola at a valuation 22,750 crore.

Tata returned to investing in startups this February after a brief hiatus caused by his return as the interim Chairman of the Tata Group last year. In a fireside chat with Vani Kola of Kalaari Capital he said “When I retired in 2012, I hit upon investing and interacting with startups as a new page in my life. I left the big business, crores of rupees and large challenges behind. I became so excited by the innovation, passion (in startups). It stimulated me.”

With RNT Capital Advisors, Tata is now looking to make bigger bets in startups not just in India but also in the SouthEast Asia region. Tata who was known to make small token investments in startups largely in exchange for his guidance and expertise in running businesses will now take much bigger bets as seen with RNT’s maiden investment in Ola.