A SUCCESSFUL STARTUP- OLA CABS
Youth Motivators
Coming back to the man behind Ola; simple yet charming Bhavish, with the success of his prodigy has certainly become the talk of the town. But even after becoming a millionaire, he still prefers to not buy a car and take a cab (to set an example, we presume), certainly doesn’t goes down well with his wife. He believes that, such is a small price that every entrepreneur has to pay.
Anyways, when not crushing his competitors, one can catch Bhavish cycling, playing squash or doing what he loves the most – photography. He also maintains a largely popular photoblog!
| OLA - COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS | |
|---|---|
| Headquarter | Bangalore |
| Founders/Owners | Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati |
| Sector | Transportation |
| Founded | December 2010 |
| Revenue | 2,544 crores INR ( US$360 million) 2019 |
| Total Funding | $4.3 billion |
| Valuation | over $3.3 billion (March 2021) |
| Parent Company | ANI technologies Pvt. Ltd. |
Ola has simplified the process of cab booking. From easy payment options to keeping the passenger entertained on the go with 'Ola Play', Ola takes care of everything to ensure a smooth ride. Ola now also operates self-drive cars. Be it self-drive or cab hailing, Ola offers a wide range of cars to choose from depending on the number of travelers, budget, and convenience. For traveling within the city, one can hire shared taxis, autos, bikes, and even e-rickshaws through Ola.
One can opt for ‘Ola outstation’ to travel outside the city and ‘Ola rentals’ to rent a cab on an hourly basis. Ola has also launched ‘Ola select’, a subscription-based membership program that offers premium benefits on rides. 'Ola pedal', Ola’s bicycle-sharing service, is already a big hit in the IIT Kanpur and the IIT Madras campuses with over 500 cycles.
In 2016, Ola launched ‘Ola corporate’. When employees book their rides through Ola corporate, the fare is deducted from the company’s Ola corporate prepaid account. Hence, companies can easily track the travel expenses of their employees while ensuring their safety.
Ola also introduced Ola money. The products offered under Ola money are Ola money credit card, Ola money postpaid, Ola money mobile wallet, and Ola money hospicash. Ola hospicash is a collaboration between Ola and Religare health insurance that allows the policyholders to claim Rupees.5000 per day in case of hospitalization.
Ola operates with transparency. The commission is given to drivers for every sale made. Ola is known to charge far less than many other cab operators. With the acquisition of FoodPanda in December 2017, Ola also forayed into the cloud kitchen segment.
Ola launched India's first multimodal electric vehicle project on 26 May 2017. The project brought together industry experts and the Indian government to pioneer electric vehicles for the public and promote shared mobility in Nagpur. Ola is providing 200+ electric vehicles for booking in Nagpur through its app. Established as a separate entity, Ola Electric Mobility Pvt. Ltd also reached the unicorn status with $250 million investment from SoftBank in July 2019.
Ola Electric raises $100 MN in debt financing from the Bank of Baroda in what is declared as the largest long-term debt financing agreement in the Indian EV industry. These proceeds, as the company mentioned, will go towards the funding and financial closure of the first phase of development of the manufacturing factory of its electric two-wheelers, which is based out of Chennai.
According to OLA's December 2020 statement, the company had already announced that it would set up Phase 1 of the factory with investments amounting to Rs.2,400 crore.
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