Ola pares funding target for its AI venture to $300mn

Krutrim has no firm offers yet but is "confident of onboarding multiple big-ticket investors"

- Ayaan Kartik & Shouvik Das

Bhavish Aggarwal is looking to raise up to $300 million for his artificial intelligence venture Ola Krutrim, curtailing his ambitions to snag about $500 million, after seeing poor investor appetite, three people aware of the development said.

While there are no concrete investment offers on the table yet for the next round, Krutrim, led by its founder Aggarwal, is "confident of bringing multiple big-ticket investors to the cap-table" in the coming months, these people said on the condition of anonymity.

Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and SBI Capital Markets are the bankers involved in the funding round, one of the persons cited earlier said, adding that Krutrim will raise funds in a mix of debt and equity.

The three banks did not respond to Mint's emailed requests for comment. An Ola spokesperson said the company "does not comment on speculations."

Mint could not independently ascertain the valuation being sought by Aggarwal for the latest funding round from investors.