Ratan Tata, the Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, has invested in domestic ride-sharing company Ola's newly-launched electric vehicle (EV) arm Ola Electric Mobility Pvt Ltd (OEMPL) as part of its Series A round of funding, the cab aggregator announced on Monday.A leading investor in startups, Tata was also an early investor in Ola's parent company ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd."The electric vehicle ecosystem is evolving dramatically every day, and I believe Ola Electric will play a key role in its growth and development. I have always admired the vision of Bhavish Aggarwal and I'm confident that this will be part of yet another important strategic move into this new business area," Tata said in a statement.OEMPL is currently running several pilots involving charging solutions, battery swapping stations, and deploying vehicles across two, three and four-wheeler segments.
"Mr. Tata has been an inspiration and a mentor to me personally in shaping Ola's journey over the years. I'm very excited to welcome him on board Ola Electric as an investor and a mentor in our mission of building sustainable mobility for everyone on our planet," said Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO, Ola."He is a visionary who has inspired a generation of entrepreneurs and we are privileged to have his guidance and support once again, as we work towards our goal of a million electric vehicles in India by 2021."OEMPL has raised Rs 400 crore, led by several of Ola's early investors, including Tiger Global and Matrix India, as part of its first round of investment. In 2018, the company announced "Mission: Electric" to bring 1 million EVs on Indian roads by 2021. The company was initially established to enable Ola's electric mobility pilot program in Nagpur.Tata's investment in OEMPL is a significant endorsement of the company's approach to developing an EV ecosystem, including innovations in charging infrastructure, swapping models, and market-appropriate products.