Mumbai, April 19 -- Indian ride-hailing company Ola Cabs is gearing up for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to secure $500 million with a company valuation of approximately $5 billion, media reports said.

SoftBank backed Ola, often dubbed as Indias counterpart to Uber, and intends to submit paperwork for approval to the countrys market regulator SEBI within three months, Reuters reported citing sources who requested anonymity.

Ola has not commented on this, so far.

The company is currently engaged in discussions with various investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citi, as well as Indias Kotak and Axis, with plans to onboard IPO advisors within the next month, as stated by two of the sources.

While Citi and Bank of...