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Uber's Indian rival Ola invests $100 million in scooter-sharing business Vogo

Ola has invested $100m in a scooter-sharing service - Ola
Ola has invested $100m in a scooter-sharing service - Ola

Indian ridesharing business Ola, one of the largest competitors to Uber, has invested $100m (£78m) in scooter-sharing start-up Vogo. 

Vogo allows customers in India to rent moped-style motor scooters and pay for them by the minute.

The service currently operates in Bangalore and Hyderabad, although it’s likely to expand further using its new funding.

The start-up plans to purchase an extra 100,000 scooters with the investment from Ola. Its service will also be integrated into the main Ola app, which has 150m registered customers.

The business isn’t the only service offering temporary moped-style scooters in India. Rival service Bounce raised $12.2m from Accel Partners and Sequoia India earlier this year.

“Our investment in Vogo will help build a smart multi-modal network for first-last mile connectivity in the country,” said Ola chief executive Bhavish Aggarwal on Tuesday.

“Vogo’s automated scooter-sharing platform, backed by Ola’s expertise in this space can help transform our cities.”

Last year, Ola launched a bicycle-sharing service in India. Ola Pedal allows customers to rent bicycles through the Ola app and to pay for them by the minute.

Large ridehailing businesseshave sought to integrate similar scooter services into their apps. 

Uber purchased electric bicycle and scooter sharing business Jump earlier this year and has begun to offer those services inside its app.

Uber also invested in electric bicycle and scooter service Lime in July. It has been reported that Uber has considered purchasing either Lime or its competitor Bird, although both companies have denied that they are for sale.

Lyft, a US-headquartered competitor to Uber, purchased bicycle-sharing business Motivate earlier this year for around $250m.