Electric two-wheeler company Ola Electric submitted a Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) to the market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Friday to raise funds through an IPO. This will be the first IPO from an Indian automobile manufacturer in more than 20 years.

According to the draft paper filed with the regulator, the proposed IPO will involve the issuance of new equity shares worth up to Rs 55,00 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of 9,51,91,195 equity shares.

Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, Citigroup Global Markets India, BofA Securities India, Goldman Sachs (India) Securities, Axis Capital, ICICI Securities, SBI Capital Markets, and BOB Capital Markets are the book-running lead managers to the offer.

The equity shares are proposed to be listed on the BSE and NSE. 

The company has been preparing for the IPO and, in this regard, has reconstituted its board. Former Airtel CEO Manoj Kohli, Mensa Brands founder Ananth Narayan, Yourstory co-founder Shraddha Sharma, and several independent members were included in the new board.

The Bengaluru-based Ola Electric plans to use the IPO proceeds for its capital expenditure, OCT for the Ola Gigafactory project, payment of debt by subsidiary OET, investment into research and product development, expenditure for organic growth initiatives, and general corporate purposes, according to the papers filed before the SEBI. 

The company operates its direct-to-customer (D2C) omnichannel distribution network, comprising 935 experience centres situated across India which include 414 service centres, as of October 31, 2023, it said in the papers. 

Ola Electric manufactures electric vehicles (EVs) and key components of EVs, such as battery packs and motors. The company is in the process of building an EV hub in the Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts in Tamil Nadu, India, which includes the Ola Futurefactory, the upcoming Ola Gigafactory, and co-located suppliers in Krishnagiri district.

After a $384.43 million funding round in October, the total valuation of the company was reported to be around $5.4-5.55 billion. In this funding, a debt of about $240 million was taken from Temasek and the State Bank of India.

For the fiscal year 2023, revenue from operations jumped more than seven times to Rs 2,630.93 crore against Rs 373.42 crore a year ago, as per the available reports.