Ola Electric promoter pledges 10.71 crore shares to secure debt for Bhavish Aggarwal's AI startup Krutrim

Ola Electric Mobility Limited said in a filing that its promoter has pledged 10.71 crore shares, or 2.43% of the company’s equity capital, to raise funds for Krutrim Data Centre Private Limited. The pledged shares represent 8.09% of the promoter’s holding in the electric vehicle maker.

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The encumbrance has been created in favour of Axis Trustee Services, acting on behalf of Avendus Structured Credit Fund II, Avendus Finance, InCred Credit Opportunities Fund I and II, and India Credit Opportunities Fund II.

It replaces an earlier non-disposal undertaking (NDU) on the same shares, disclosed to exchanges in December 2024 and March 2025. Ola said the NDU will be released once the pledge process is complete.

The move was enabled by the recent expiry of the lock-in period on certain promoter shares, under provisions of SEBI’s Issue of Capital and Disclosure Requirements regulations. Ola cautioned that during the transition, both the new pledge and the unreleased NDU may temporarily appear in stock exchange records until systems are updated.

The development comes as Bhavish Aggarwal-founded Krutrim, which focuses on AI infrastructure and large language models, continues to navigate financial and operational headwinds.

The startup, valued at over $1 billion after a $50 million funding round in January 2024, had reportedly been in talks to secure as much as $300 million in fresh capital, though it publicly denied the discussions.

Krutrim has meanwhile cut more than 200 jobs this year, including 50 positions last week from its linguistics team, as it attempts to sharpen focus on its cloud platform and model development. Its flagship products, Krutrim Cloud and related AI offerings, have yet to achieve significant market traction. The startup is working on its largest system to date, Krutrim 3, a multibillion-parameter model.