Update: SoftBank Internet and Media Inc (SIMI) has officially confirmed (pdf) that it is leading a $210 million into Olacabs along with existing investors. As part of the deal, SIMI CEO and former Google executive Nikesh Arora will be joining the company board. Along with Olacabs, SoftBank Group also confirmed that it is investing $627 million into the online marketplace Snapdeal. The company has reportedly committed an investment of $10 billion into India’s information technology (IT) and communications segment. Earlier (Oct 27): Online cab booking service Olacabs is raising $210 million investment from SoftBank Corp at valuation of nearly $1 billion, reports The Economic Times citing sources. It says the investment is expected to be announced this week when SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son is visiting India. We've written to Olacabs for a confirmation and will update the story once we get a response. The company however has declined to comment on this to the publication. Interestingly, this investment comes just three months after it raised Rs 250 crore from investors like Steadview Capital and Sequoia Capital and participation from existing investors Tiger Global and Matrix Partners. Olacabs co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal had then mentioned that they are using the capital to expand to newer cities & categories and was hoping to have a presence in at least 20 cities by the end of this year. The company currently offers taxi bookings for 19 Indian cities include Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad among others and claims to have over 30,000 cars on its platform. Earlier this month, Olacabs had also started…
