Indian ride-hailing firm Ola Cabs is planning an initial public offering (IPO) to raise $500 million at a company valuation of about $5 billion, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday.

SoftBank-backed Ola is India's answer to Uber and plans to file papers for approval with the country's market regulator within three months, said the sources, who declined to be named as the matter is confidential.

Ola declined to comment.

The company is in talks with investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citi and India's Kotak and Axis, and plans to appoint IPO advisers within a month, said two of the sources.

Citi and Bank of America declined to comment, while the others did not respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by M. Sriram; Editing by Aditya Kalra and Mark Potter)