The most common name that is at the tip of everyone’s tongue today is Ola. The most easiest and economical way to commute – Ola cabs have revolutionized the way the world travels by cabs. Ola has stopped the villainy and unreasonable high fees charged by taxi drivers. Ola is India’s largest mobility platform and the world’s largest ride-hailing company. With offices in more than 250 cities across India, the UK, New Zealand, and Australia, the Ola app is providing mobility solutions by helping commuters connect with drivers on a centralized digital platform over a wide range of vehicles like bikes, rickshaws, and four-wheelers. This company has succeeded in providing transparency and convenience to hundreds of consumers as well as more than 1.5 million driver-partners.
What unique services do they provide & how it’s solving real-life issues?
Ola Electric, India’s largest fleet management company, Ola Fleet Technologies, and Ola Skilling, which aims to provide millions of job opportunities for India’s youth, are the various branches of Ola’s mobility offering in India. Ola is attempting to create mobility for the next billion Indians with its acquisition of Ridlr, the nation’s top public transportation app, and investment in Vogo, a dockless scooter-sharing solution. Through Ola Financial Services and its Food business, Ola also expands its consumer offerings to include micro-insurance and credit-led payments as well as a variety of owned food brands.
How the Journey Started?
With the goal of enabling mobility for a billion people, Bhavish founded Ola (formerly OlaCabs) in 2010 with fellow Indian Institute of Technology graduate Ankit Bhati. Bhavish doesn’t own a car and has vowed never to do so, staying true to his conviction that on-demand consumer transportation should be available as a service.
Bhavish initially started an online site named Olatrip.com in December 2010. The company offered holiday packages and weekend trips. Bhavish had to frequently travel from Bangalore to Bandipur to keep this tour planning afloat. He once rented out a car to go to Bandipur and was left with a horrible cab experience, wherein the cab driver jilted him in the middle of the road for an unreasonable fee hike. It was then that Bhavish realized the poor plight of lakhs of cab travelers in India. He instantly decided to create an extraordinary cab business, after which Ola Cabs was born.
Their Achievements
Instead of purchasing and leasing its own vehicles, Ola collaborates with a number of taxi operators and drivers while incorporating some cutting-edge technology into the overall system. This makes it possible for users of the Ola app to quickly book cabs. According to Uber’s 2020 report, India’s native ride-hailing app Ola has a little less than 50% of the market there. It employs over 2.5 million driver partners and has users in more than 250 Indian cities.
- OFS – Ola Financial Services
Ola also launched Ola money. The services provided by Ola Money include the Ola Money Hospicash, Ola Money Mobile Wallet, Ola Money Postpaid, and Ola Money Credit Card.
- Ola Electric
On May 26, 2017, Ola unveiled India’s first multi-modal electric vehicle project. With a $250 million investment from SoftBank in July 2019, Ola Electric Mobility Pvt. Ltd., which was established as a separate entity, also attained unicorn status. On September 15, 2021, Ola Electric scooters became available for purchase on their website and through the Ola app after exceeding expectations during the pre-booking round. According to reports, the company sold electric scooters worth Rs 1100 crore in just 2 days.
Funding
2011 – Ola Cabs raised $500k in Angel Investment from Kunal Bahl and other Investors.
2012 – Ola Cabs raised $5 mn from Tiger Global Management.
2013 – Ola Cabs raised $20 mn from Matrix Partners & Tiger Global Management.
2015 – Ola shot to fame as a unicorn after raising over $900 mn from different investors in Series E & F funding and also acquired TaxiforSure.
2016 – Ola started their 2-wheeler service in Bangalore & came into controversy because of a price hike.
2017 – Ola acquired Foodpanda and raised $1.1 Bn from Tencent Holdings and Softbank & over $300 mn from other investors.
2018 – Ola raised $250 mn in series I funding and expanded its services in Australia.
Over 29 rounds, Ola has raised a total of about $5 billion in funding. The secondary market and debt financing are also included. On December 8, 2021, OLA received its final round of funding after successfully raising $139 million from investors including Edelweiss. Another funding round, dated February 22, 2022, followed, with a number of investors participating, including Arrow Multi-Asset Fund and Axis Growth Avenues AIF.
Revenue
When the nationwide lockdown was announced and the pandemic hit hard in October 2019, Ola’s valuation had reached $6.2 billion. As a ride-sharing company, Ola suffered unfathomable losses. After the widespread lockdown was announced in India in late March 2020, the company’s revenues saw a drop of nearly 95%. By the end of the current fiscal year 2022–2023, Ola reported revenue of 7824 crore.
Future plans if available
As promised in July 2022, Ola has now revealed its plans to introduce its first electric vehicle within the next two to three years. The CEO of OLA, Bhavish Aggarwal, revealed that his company was preparing to produce the sportiest automobile ever created in India. There are already some concept design ideas prepared. The new 4W factory, which will be built and be a different factory from Ola’s Future factory for 2Ws, will be where the company will launch its first electric vehicle.
As Ola initially planned to list in the first quarter of 2022, rumors started to circulate that the company would probably file its DRHP (Draft Red Herring Prospectus) in the December quarter of the previous year. However, that is the past, and the current situation is that the Ola IPO has been postponed and will now either occur at the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023.
Conclusion
While the company grows and keeps making brilliant future plans, we cannot deny that Ola cabs have made our lives so easy. With the advent of Ola electric cars, our environment will be able to breathe easily too!
