Vanguard cuts valuation of India's Ola Cabs by about 30% to under $2 bln

BENGALURU, Feb 5 (Reuters) - U.S. asset manager Vanguard has cut Indian ride-hailing company Ola Cabs' valuation by 30% to under $2 billion in at least its third-straight mark down, a regulatory filing showed, as the start-up is locked in a battle for market share with Uber.

Vanguard now values ANI Technologies, Ola Cabs' parent company, at about $1.88 billion, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which did not mention a reason for the valuation cut. It last valued the company at about $2.65 billion in August 2023.

Ola Cabs did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Ola Cabs was co-founded by Bhavish Aggarwal in 2010 and found immediate backing from marquee investors such as Softbank and Tiger Global, besides Vanguard. These investors injected millions into Ola as it competed with Uber to dominate one of the world's most populous countries.

ANI's most recent fundraise, in 2021, valued it at $7.3 billion.

However, the decade-long, bruising price war with Uber has been exacerbated in recent years by new, more niche entrants such as BluSmart, alongside continually changing government regulations.

As a result, Ola Cabs is yet to report a profit. Its losses narrowed by 65% to 10.83 billion rupees (about $130.5 million) in fiscal 2023.

The fund manager, which purchased shares for $50 million in 2015, now values them at $13.3 million, marking a 29% decline from its last valuation of $25 million.

Ola Cabs has also incubated an e-scooter company, which Aggarwal spun out into a separate entity in 2019. Ola Electric, the e-scooter maker, is now looking to raise $662 million in an initial public offering.

Aggarwal also heads the AI startup, Krutrim, which secured $50 million at a $1 billion valuation last month in a funding round led by Matrix Partners India.

($1 = 83.0360 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Savio D'Souza )