Bhavish Aggarwal, who founded the new company Krutrim SI Designs, is in discussions to raise money, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
A few investors are also said to have pledged their support to Aggarwal’s new business.
“Krutrim SI Designs is raising at least $50 million and it may go up to $100 million,” said one of the sources.
“Matrix has committed to invest $15 million in the company’s maiden funding round while Ola’s several existing and new investors will also participate.”
In April of this year, Tenneti Venugopala Krishnamurthy co-founded Krutrim SI Designs. A longtime board member of ANI Technologies, the parent company of Ola, is Krishnamurthy.
According to sources, Krutrim SI Designs will assist in developing and supporting Ola Electric’s operations. Aggarwal revealed that the new company will concentrate on developing silicon chips, a cloud infrastructure to deliver solutions to customers, and AI models in a recent interview.
“Aggarwal has also been talking to several startups based in the US and India for acquisition in the AI space but he’s yet to finalise one,” said another source.
Ola Electric has been expanding, while more information about the Krutrim SI Designs’ line of business is still pending. The company announced plans to start producing electric bikes by 2024 on August 15, along with the launch of new versions of its electric scooters. The company asserts that in FY23, both revenue and PAT (Profit After Tax) increased significantly. The business, however, has not released its audited financial figures for the most recent fiscal year.
Operating revenue was Rs 373 crore in FY22, but losses increased by a factor of four to Rs 784 crore.
