Bengaluru, April 16 (IANS): Leading mobile application provider for personal transportation Ola on Thursday announced raising $400 million (Rs.2,495 crore) from venture partners to fund its expansion and growth plans.

"The additional funds will allow us to go into smaller cities and build personal transportation. $100 million (Rs.624 crore) will be spent on expanding TaxiForSure service we acquired recently (March 2)," Ola said in a statement here.

The latest (fifth) round of funding (series E) was led by venture capitalists DST Global, GIC, Falcon Edge and Ola's earlier investors SoftBank, Tiger Global, Steadview Capital and Accel Partners.

"There is a huge opportunity to be unlocked in smaller cities and transform the personal transport ecosystem across the country," Ola co-founder and chief executive Bhavish Aggarwal said on the occasion.

The Mumbai-based technology firm (formerly Olacabs) bought the Bengaluru-based TaxiForSure aggregator for $200 million (Rs.1,238 crore) in cash-cum-equity deal to become market leader in personal transportation space with one-lakh vehicles on its mobile platform.

"Acquisition of TaxiForSure has accelerated our growth and expand our presence in 100 cities as against in 10 cities a year ago to provide cab service on demand," Aggarwal asserted.

TaxiForSure operates in 47 cities across the country with 15,000 cabs registered on its platform as an aggregator.

Aggarwal co-founded Ola in January 2011 with Ankit Bhati to integrate transportation in Mumbai for customers and drivers on a technology platform.

Leveraging its strength as an on-demand platform, Ola has recently forayed into instant food delivery with OlaCafe in four cities, including Mumbai and Bengaluru.

"As we are seeing huge growth in tier two and tier three cities across the country owing to limited transportation options, we will help drivers in these places turn into entrepreneurs and empower them economically and socially," Aggarwal said.

The start-up firm will invest in building more apps (applications) to suit needs of drivers, customers and other stakeholders in the personal transport ecosystem.

"We will localise our offerings to benefit citizens and driver partners in every market and spread our tentacles into 100 more cities by this year-end," Aggarwal noted.

Through 'Ola Pragati' in partnership with the State Bank of India, cab drivers can avail of a daily loan repayment facility and a lower down payment to buy a car of their choice.

"We plan to offer this programme to about 100,000 drivers across the country over the next two years," Aggarwal, an alumni of IIT, added.

According to DST Global managing partner Rahul Mehta, Ola offers a high value proposition for customers and drivers and is transforming personal transportation in the country.

"The Ola journey has been commendable and is a unique occurrence in the lifecycle of investment firms! We are privileged to partner with it for expanding its presence and scale up its operations," Matrix India co-founder and managing director Avnish Bajaj said in the statement.