Report: Microsoft planning to invest up to $100 million in ride-hailing service Ola in India

Earlier this year, Microsoft invested in Indian e-commerce startup Flipkart as they entered into a strategic partnership to exclusively use Microsoft’s Azure platform. Today, Livemint reported that Microsoft is in talks to invest up to $100 million in Ola, a ride-hailing service that competes with Uber in India. Similar to the Flipkart deal, as a result of the investment, Ola may switch to Microsoft Azure platform from Amazon Web Services.

“The talks with Ola are in very early stages. More than the money, it is more about Nadella’s vision of partnering with more and more large technology companies in India and establish Azure as service of preference. Microsoft is likely to invest in Ola but a term sheet is yet to be issued,” reported Livemint.

These deals reflect Microsoft’s seriousness towards cloud services market in the India. “At Microsoft, we aim to empower every Indian and every Indian organization with technology and key to this is forging strategic partnerships with innovative companies like Flipkart,” said Satya Nadella when Flipkart deal was announced.