Ajay Piramal buys 'marginal' stake in Chennai-based cab aggregator Utoo

CHENNAI: Billionaire investor Ajay Piramal has bought a ‘marginal’ stake in Chennai-based cab aggregator Utoo, the company’s promoter C Sivasankaran said on Monday. Utoo, which was launched just over a month ago to compete against Ola and Uber, has been valued at Rs 1,000 crore, Sivasankaran, a former owner of telecom firm Aircel, said. Piramal did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment. Utoo has so far received Rs 74 crore raised from Sivasankaran’s friends and family. It will open investment talks with venture companies and hedge funds for raising about Rs 2,000 crore once it achieves the milestone of one-lakh rides a day in eight cities. For Piramal, who is backing a pureplay venture fund Montane Ventures, this would be the first investment in a technology-based cab aggregator. Sivasankaran had applied for bankruptcy protection in Seychelles in 2014 following a financial claim by Bahraini telecom company Batelco. Earlier this year, the top court in the island nation cancelled the bankruptcy and ordered that the businessman’s assets be unfrozen. Sivasankaran said the investment has been routed through Piramal Group company Alpex Corporate Services but did not disclose the quantum of the investment. Utoo is aiming to differentiate itself with a model that shuns driver incentivisation and surge pricing. Still in its soft launch and with cab numbers in a few hundreds across the city, Sivasankaran believes the Utoo model will work in an industry trying hard to keep its driver-partners happy. Sivasankaran added that Utoo, which is planning to release an affordable line of cabs at Rs 6 per kilometre, will shun hatchbacks that do not have safety features like airbags. “Utoo will only use cars that lend themselves to be used as taxis,” he said.