Didi Kuaidi, Uber’s dominant Chinese rival, today confirmed it has invested in OLA, another Uber rival based out of India. The investment amount remains undisclosed by either parties. Along with this investment Didi Kuaidi will join a slew of Ola’s existing investors, including Falcon Edge, GIC, Tiger Global Management and Softbank in supporting the company’s continued expansion in India.
“Didi Kuaidi looks to engage local industry champions like Ola to share technology and best practices in product development and operational expertise – all honed from deep market data-driven operations,” Didi Kuaidi said in a statement.
“We welcome Didi Kuaidi as an investor in Ola. We look forward to exchanging learnings from two of the world’s largest markets and the tremendous synergies this partnership can bring, towards our commitment of building mobility for a billion Indians,” the Bangalore-based Ola said in a statement on Monday morning.
Ola which was launched in 2011 has over 250,000 cars in 100+ Indian cities and said to have 80% market share in the taxi hailing segment. According to the recent numbers OLA completes over 750,000 rides daily.
Previously Didi has also invested in Uber’s US rival Lyft, which shares common investors with the other companies, including Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.