Watch out Uber. Sachin Bansal gets Ola share after selling Flipkart

• Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal is pumping $91 million into the ride-hailing startup.
  
• Ola’s valuation stays at $5.7 billion.
  
• The cab-hailing app is reportedly looking to venture into the e-pharmacy segment too.

Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal has reportedly made his first investment post his exit from the e-tail giant, pumping $91 million into Indian cab hailing unicorn $4, which appears to be on a massive expansion spree.

Bansal announced his exit from Flipkart after its $16 billion acquisition by Walmart last year. Sachin Bansal, along with former Flipkart Group CEO Binny Bansal, famously grew Flipkart from a two-bedroom apartment business to one of India’s biggest e-retail giants. He reportedly sold his 5.5% stake for $1 billion in the sale

Bansal had initially pumped in $21million which got him 70,588 series J preferred shares at a price of $4 The investment is said to be a part of Ola’s series J funding round.

Ola could be raising $4 in the round. Ola's current investors include the likes of Tencent, Softbank, Hong Kong-based Sailing Capital among others. It is also reportedly looking at raising money from Singapore-based Temasek.

However, with this investment, the valuation of the company stays the same at $5.7 billion. Bansal is reportedly putting in his own money, and not from the new $1 billion VC fund he is said to be raising. It will give Ola a financial heft in fighting its global rival Uber.

Not just a cab company

Ola, which has thus far focused on cab hailing, has been in a race to become India’s biggest startup and looking at venturing into other businesses. It has experimented with the Electric Vehicle market recently, bringing in $4 EV rickshaws on to Indian roads.

Earlier in 2015, the company also tried its hand in food delivery with Ola Cafe. However, it had to shut down operations in just a year. Later in 2017, Ola acquired food delivery startup Foodpanda to stay in the game.

Talks were also doing the rounds that Ola is also looking at entering the e-pharmacy segment with the acquisition of Bengaluru-based Myra Medicines.

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