Bhavish Aggarwal’s Ola has seen another valuation cut by US-based asset manager Vanguard.

A fund operated by Vanguard marked down the fair value of Ola (ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd) by 29% to $1.88 billion as of November-end, according to an Economic Times report citing US Securities and Exchange Commission filings. However, no reason was specified for the valuation cut.

Vanguard now holds less than 1% of ANI Technologies via two funds—Vanguard World Fund and Vanguard Variable Insurance Funds—NDTV Profit reported. The $1.88 billion valuation after markdown was based on Vanguard World Fund’s holding, which owns most of the total stake.

This is the fourth time in a row that Vanguard has revised downwards the valuation of its shareholding in ANI Technologies.

As of the end of February last year, Vanguard cut the worth of its shares in the Ola parent by 35%, valuing it at $4.8 billion. It further marked down the value of its holding by 51.6% as of May-end, putting ANI Technologies’s valuation at $3.5 billion. As of August-end, it marked down the value of its holdings by 63.7%, reducing the startup’s valuation in its books to $2.65 billion.

The latest number is a significant revision from Ola’s last fundraise in 2021, when it raised $139 million at a valuation of $7.3 billion. But to be fair, the markdowns are only in Vanguard’s internal books and may or may not indicate a markup or erosion in the startup’s overall valuation.

However, Ola as a cab-hailing business is standing. Its allure as the leader in the ride-hailing industry is fading. The market—earlier a duopoly between it and Uber—has seen a score of new ride-hailing services such as BluSmart, SnapE, InDrive and Rapido mushrooming in the past few years.

Also Read: Ola’s cab business is failing

Meanwhile, as the cab business went on autopilot, Aggarwal shifted focus on Ola Electric and fixing issues with its scooters. An IPO of the cab-hailing business, which Aggarwal had promised by mid-2022, never saw the light of day. Neither did the planned super app. High attrition, drivers exiting the network and high-level exits are one part of the problem, layoffs are the other.

Also Read: Uber isn’t worried about Ola anymore

Bhavish’s immediate goal is to boost Ola Electric’s sales ahead of its much-touted IPO. He moved on from the cab business a couple of years ago. What ails Ola’s business seems far from his mind. “Bhavish doesn’t care,” a former Ola executive had told The Morning Context in August last year. “He doesn’t even talk about the business.” Also Read: Should SEBI allow the Ola Electric IPO to go through?

But even as Aggarwal readies his EV company for a public listing, he is already testing the market’s appetite for his latest AI venture—Krutrim. The draft IPO filing for his EV company might have been a minefield, but Aggarwal is focusing on showing how his “homegrown” generative AI platform is better than OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Not just that, last month, Krutrim claimed it raised Rs 50 million and became the first Indian AI startup to become a unicorn. Amid all the bling and fireworks around the new businesses, the biggest loser is ANI Technologies, which is slowly slipping into obscurity.

Also Read: Ola Electric is selling thousands of Ola scooters to Ola