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Ola needs no introduction. The first Indian cab aggregator company, Ola has made availing of cab services a smooth experience. Owned by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and formerly known as OlaCabs, Ola was launched in December 2010 by two IIT Bombay graduates. Ola bridges the gap between cab owners and commuters.
Instead of buying and renting out its own cars, Ola partners with a number of taxi drivers and owners and adds a touch of modern technology to the whole setup. This allows people to book cabs at a short notice through Ola's app. Ola is India's homegrown ride-hailing app with a little less than 50% market share (as of Uber's 2020 report) in India. It has users in over 250 cities of India and employs 2.5 million+ driver-partners.
Driven by a hyperlocal approach, Ola is committed to its mission of building mobility for a billion people. Staying in line with its mission, Ola has also ventured into auto and bike booking services. Ola also started off a bicycle sharing service called 'Ola Pedal' in 2017 to facilitate last-mile connectivity. Here is a detailed company profile of Ola:
December 21, 2021 - Ola founder CEO Bhavish Aggarwal is all set to address the cancellation issues of Ola Cabs, which he states is the "2nd most popular question" he gets. The company has brought in new features to address the same on December 21, 2021. Bhavish took to Twitter to announce this:
Addressing the 2nd most popular question I get - Why does my driver cancel my Ola ride?!!
We're taking steps to fix this industry wide issue. Ola drivers will now see approx drop location & payment mode before accepting a ride. Enabling drivers is key to reducing cancelations. pic.twitter.com/MFaK1q0On8
December 16, 2021 - Ola mops up $500 mn worth of funding as the Term B loan funding of the company from a cluster of international investors.
November 30, 2021 - Ola launches a grocery delivery platform that is to deliver grocery within 10 minutes, starting from Mumbai and Bangalore, where the company has already set up around 15 dark stores.
November 30, 2021 - Ola is looking to raise around $500 mn in an upcoming debt round via a Term Loan B (TLB) deal. It would be the third Indian company to do so if it materializes.
November 18, 2021 - Ola has made several key leadership appointments across verticals ahead of its IPO round. PV Harinarayan has joined as Vice President, Lending at Ola Financial Services; V Ramesh has joined as the Head of Operations at Ola Futurefactory, and Priteesh Mahajan has been declared as the Head of Product Planning at Ola Electric.
November 5, 2021 - Ola kickstarts its 15-minute delivery or quick delivery service in Bengaluru, where the company is delivering groceries, personal care and pet care products.
October 15, 2021 - Ola SVP & Chief Operating Officer, Gaurav Porwal and Ola Chief Financial Officer, Swayam Saurabh both left the company ahead of the IPO round of the company next year.
October 5, 2021 - Ola acquires Pune-based geospatial service provider, GeoSpoc with an aim to develop location and geospatial technologies.
January 20, 2021 - Ola announced a press release stating 'Ola adopts Siemens' Digital Enterprise to build India's most advanced manufacturing facility'.
Ola has partnered with Siemens to build its upcoming electric vehicle manufacturing facility. This announcement comes when OLA has an MoU with the government of Tamil Nadu to invest around INR 2,400 Cr towards building this facility.
It is expected that the factory will generate around 10,000 jobs, with an initial capacity of 2 million units a year and making it the largest scooter manufacturing facility in the world. This will serve as Ola's global manufacturing hub catering to customers in India and across Europe, the UK, Latin America, and ANZ (Australia and New Zealand)
This factory is going to be amazing and technologically advanced with 5,000 robots stationed across various functions and will be built on Industry 4.o principles. Ola will have access to Siemens' integrated Digital Twin design and manufacturing solutions to digitalize and validate product and production ahead of actual operations. It will have Ola's proprietary AI Engine and tech stack deeply integrated into each aspect of the manufacturing process. Thereby, providing unprecedented control, automation, and quality to the operations.
Bhavish Aggarwal, Chairman & Group CEO, Ola, said, ''Ola is delighted to partner with Siemens to build the most advanced manufacturing facility in the country. This will be our global hub and will set a benchmark in quality, scale and efficiency, demonstrating India's capability to build world class cutting edge products. We look forward to bringing this factory online in the coming months and putting our products in the hands of customers."
Ola's scooter blends excellent design, sensational performance, and incredible technology into an amazing product. It has already won several prestigious design and innovation awards including the IHS Markit Innovation award at CES and the German Design Award.
Sunil Mathur, MD & CEO, Siemens India, said, "Siemens is a global leader in Industry 4.0 and we are proud to contribute to Ola's vision of creating a factory of the future using our automation and digitalization expertise to ensuring the highest levels of productivity and quality while enabling an agile and flexible production process."
Ola has simplified the process of cab booking. From easy payment options to keeping the passengers 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 has 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 Rs. 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 unicorn status with a $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.
The Ola Electric scooters have already started pre-bookings and have registered over 1 lakh pre-bookings. Now, the company is to finally launch them, as per Bhavish Aggarwal's new Twitter post, on August 15, 2021.
Thanks to all who have reserved our scooter!
Planning a launch event for the Ola Scooter on 15th August. Will share full specs and details on product and availability dates. Looking forward to it! 😀
After exceeding expectations in the pre-booking round, Ola Electric scooters are finally live for purchase on their website and via the Ola app from September 15, 2021. The company had already sold Rs 1100 crores worth of electric scooters in just 2 days.
Ola - Industry Details
India's taxi-hailing market is valued at more than $40 Billion. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.3% between 2022-2024. The increase is supposed to happen due to the changing lifestyles of travelers and the growing disposable incomes of consumers, especially in Tier-I and Tier-II cities.
Ola was founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati in 2010.
Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati
Bhavish Aggarwal
Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal graduated from IIT Bombay with a B.Tech in computer science in the year 2008. Ola cabs owner Bhavish worked for Microsoft Research in Bangalore for two years right after college. He filed 2 patents and published 3 research publications in international journals during his stint at Microsoft. While chasing his entrepreneurial dream, he started an online company to sell short-duration tours and holidays before transforming it into Ola Cabs. Bhavish Aggarwal is the Co-founder and the CEO of Ola. Born on 28 August 1985, OLA owner Bhavish Aggarwal's age is just 36! His personal net worth was estimated to be around $350 Million, as per 2019 data.
Ankit Bhati
Ankit Bhati is the Co-founder and the CTO of Ola and heads the technical aspects of Ola Cabs, ensuring a quick, convenient, and instinctive experience for the customers and partners. He joined IIT Bombay in 2004 for a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering and an M.Tech in CAD and automation. By 2009, he had already worked on several freelance projects and with startups like Wilcom, QED42, etc. Ankit finally decided to give up his nomadic professional life for his own start-up. He became part of the Ola Cabs journey in November 2010. There were speculations that Ankit Bhati has left Ola but these were nothing but rumors and falsities, as said by Ola Co-founder Bhavish.
Ahead of its IPO Ola Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Swayam Saurabh and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Gaurav Porwal left the company in the first week of October 2021.
Ola's team is 7000+ employees strong, who work tirelessly with Ola.
Ola - Startup Story | How was Ola Started?
Ola was launched on 3rd December 2010. There is an interesting story behind Ola's start. Born in Ludhiana, Ola owner Bhavish Aggarwal was just like every other success-driven entrepreneur. Bhavish first started an online site named Olatrip.com that offered holiday packages and weekend trips.
While trying to keep his holiday and tour planning business afloat, Bhavish had to travel from Bangalore to Bandipur for which he rented out a car. The cab experience was horrendous! The driver stopped the car in the middle of the journey and demanded a re-negotiation of what Bhavish was paying. After being refused, the driver proceeded to abandon Bhavish en route to his destination.
This is when he realized how his plight was probably similar to a lot of customers across the country who were looking for quality cab services. Bhavish saw the potential of an extraordinary cab booking service, and he changed Olatrip.com's business model to the one we know today as Ola Cabs.
Bhavish on-boarded his co-founder Ankit Bhati for taking Ola Cabs forward. Bhavish's parents didn't agree with his startup plans in the beginning. They were thoroughly displeased with his decision to become a 'travel agent'. Nevertheless, his parents became supportive once OLA got its first round of angel investment from Snapdeal founder Kunal Bahl, Rehan yar Khan and Anupam Mittal.
Bhavish believes that anyone can have a good business idea but to implement it successfully, one must have a scalable model to power the business. According to him, the best or one of the safest models one can or should adopt is running a business while owning "zero" inventory.
After the idea, the design and vision were done by the product manager, Usha Loutongbam, and Bhavish himself. As for the developers who converted these ideas into reality, the first version for Android was built by Ajinkya Potdar and for iOS by Khushal Bokadey. Both of them joined Ola for two months of internship and did an excellent job rolling out the release in real quick time.
The iOS app was then taken over by Atul Manwar and the android version by Ankit Kumar. Neeti Birla developed thebackend APIs. The main focus of the new releases was to make the app feature-rich and improve the user experience without losing the essence of one-touch cab booking.
As per the Ola website, the company currently has over 7,000 employees.
If you believe that Ola is some sort of abbreviation or short form, you are wrong. The name is derived from the Spanish word 'Hola' that translates to 'Hello'. The name 'Ola' probably indicates OLA's services are as easy and friendly as the word, just like saying a 'hello'. Ola's logo is simple and styled as OLA. The logo also has an "O" which represents a tyre.
Ola - Business Model and Revenue Model
Ola has a simple business model. It acts as a facilitator to provide cab-booking services. Customers can book their cabs through the app. Ola does not own any of the cabs. Only those drivers with valid permits duly authorized and verified by transport authorities can sign up with Ola; they could be either self-employed or work for an operator who owns multiple cars.
Just like how we as customers use the Ola app, the drivers get access to a driver-specific mobile app on their smartphone once they register with Ola. This is done only after a thorough check of authenticity and conducting due diligence of the commercial papers and the personal papers of both the driver and the operator. The drivers have the flexibility to decide their own time to log in to the Ola application and accept requests for rides from customers. They may choose to remain logged out of the system as per their convenience. Ola takes a commission of 15% on average on all the bookings done through the app.
Ola considers the following factors to create the final bill for the user:
Base Fare - Charged flat.
Distance Fare - Charged kilometer-wise (different for different cities).
Ride Time Fare - Charged on the time taken to travel.
Peak Pricing - Direct ratio depending on the demand for cabs.
Service Tax - 5.6%.
Swachh Bharat Tax - 0.2%.
Toll Charges - Toll Collection in case you cross toll junctions in the journey.
Ola has also got into 3 international markets namely Australia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. In Australia, it has set up operations in seven cities. It claims to have registered 40,000 drivers on its app in Australia. In India, Ola operates across 250+ cities.
Ola has raised total funding of around $5 billion over 29 rounds. This also includes debt financing and secondary market. The last funding round for OLA came in on December 8, 2021, when the company successfully raised $139 mn from Edelweiss and other investors. This was followed by another funding round dated February 22, 2022, when a clutch of investors including Axis Growth Avenues AIF and Arrow Multi-Asset Fund. The recent Series J funding received by OLA succeeds the mobility giant's approval of the allotment of 66,268 Series J1 preference shares, which is currently fixed at an issue price of Rs 22635 for a single share, which helped the company raise Rs 150 crore, as per the regulatory filings of the company. Here, Axis Growth Avenues AIF has been found to invest in Rs 112.5 crore while Arrow has put in Rs 37.5 crore worth of funds in this tranche.
Ola's valuation reached $6.2 billion in October 2019 when the pandemic hit hard and the nationwide lockdown was announced, Ola, being a ride-sharing company, suffered unimaginable losses. The company's revenues witnessed drops close to 95% after the large-scale lockdown was announced in India in late March 2020. This brought down the revenues to $3.3 billion as Vanguard marked down the value of its holding. Vanguard Group and T Rowe Price have lowered their revenue down in 2019-20, according to the reports.
Ola is currently valued at over $7.3 billion, as of December 2021. The latest funding was raised on December 8, 2021, from a Pre-IPO round.
The Indian mobility unicorn is planning to raise around $500 mn in debt via a Term Loan B (TLB) deal, as per the reports dated November 30, 2021. If the deal fleshes out the Indian mobility unicorn would then be the 3rd Indian startup to have raised a TLB funding round after BYJU's and OYO, which raised $1.2 bn and $660 mn respectively. The company successfully raised the mentioned funds via the TLB round on December 16, 2021. These new funds will be allocated to further steer the company ahead in the mobility industry.
Here is a breakup of the total funding raised by OLA to date:
Date
Stage
Amount
Investors/Shareholders
February 22, 2022
Series J
$20.11 million
Arrow Capital, Axis Growth Avenues and more
December 16, 2021
TLB Round
$500 million
-
December 8, 2021
Series J
$139 million
Edelweiss and others
July 9, 2021
Pre-IPO Round
$500 million
Temasek, Warburg Pincus's Plum Wood and Bhavish Aggarwal
September 2019
Series J
$5.1 Million
ARK Ola Pre IPO Private Investment Trust
July 2019
Series J
$11.4 Million
Deshe Holdings, DIG Investment
March 2019
Corporate Round
$300 Million
Hyundai Motor Co.& Kia Motors Corp
February 2019
Series J
$92 Million
Sachin Bansal
February 2019
Series J
$14 Million
-
January 2019
Series J
$88 Million
Steadview Capital
January 2019
Corporate Round
$1.8 Million
Eternal Yield International
September 2018
Series I
$50 Million
China Eurasian Economic Cooperation Fund, Sailing Capital
August 2018
Secondary Market
$225 Million
Temasek Holdings
October 2017
Series G
$1.1 Billion
Tencents Holdings and SoftBank Group
August 2017
Private Equity
$36 Million
Tekne Capital
May 2017
Private Equity
$104 Million
RNT Capital Advisors and Falcon Edge Capital
April 2017
Series G
$260 Million
SoftBank Capital
February 2017
-
$330 Million
SoftBank
November 2015
Series F
$500 Million
Baillie Gifford, Falcon Edge Capital, Tiger Global, SoftBank Group and DST Global
April 2015
Series E
$403 Million
DST Global, GIC, Softbank and Falcon Edge Capital
October 2014
Series D
$210 Million
SoftBank Group,Tiger Global and Matrix Partners India
July 2014
Series C
$41 Million
Steadview Capital and Sequoia Capital
November 2013
Series B
$20 Million
Matrix Partners, Tiger Global Management
April 2012
Series A
$5 Million
Tiger Global Management
April 2011
Angel
$330K
Kunal Bahl, Anupam Mittal, Rehan yar Khan
The lure of this home-grown cab aggregator has proved irresistible to investors.
Ola is funded by 48 investors with 23 lead investors, as per data available till July 10, 2021. ARK Ola Pre IPO Private Investment Trust and Hussam Khoury are the most recent investors. The latest round came from Temasek, Warburg Pincus's Plum Wood, and the company's founder, Bhavish Aggarwal's funds on July 9, 2021, prior to the IPO that the company is looking forward to!
In 2010, the Ola owners Bhavish and Ankit identified a serious gap in Mumbai. Cabs used to be idle. Cab operators charged high irrespective of the distance to compensate for the time they stayed idle. Poor services and delays were treated as an obvious thing. In 2011, they could make 10 bookings in a day. In October 2015, they booked 700,000 daily rides. They thought of piloting tracking devices in each cab but let go of the idea in January 2012. In April 2012, Ola expanded its operation in Bangalore and Delhi.
Ola has covered an interesting journey from being nothing to becoming a company that provides a livelihood to thousands of people. Today, Ola has become a part of people's everyday life in many cities.
Ola has already geared up to launch its first electric scooter under Ola Electric and is now all set to step on a new journey involving used cars. According to the reports dated July 27, 2021, Ola is looking to start its used car retailing business soon in Bengaluru. The ride-hailing giant aims for a full-stack model where it will buy cars from the driver partners of the company and other people, and sell them to buyers after they are set right, said a close source aware of the future plans requesting anonymity. The new business is likely to be called "Ola Cars."
Ola, which suffered heavily due to the coronavirus pandemic, being a ride-hailing app, has seen quite a progress after the lockdown and other strictures have been lifted. The company confirmed that the recovery it has witnessed from the second wave of Covid was 3X faster than what it has seen while shaking off the blues of the first wave.
India is moving again! Our @olacabs GMV crossed pre-covid levels last week. Recovery from second wave is 3 times faster. Clearly India is up and about! Some interesting trends as #IndiaIsMoving👇 pic.twitter.com/ERJfBR5s8f
Ola Co-founder and CEO, Bhavish Aggarwal, has also announced that Ola has seen 10 million users using the app, for the first time ever in FY21. This increase in usage is primarily because most people now are opting to avoid public transport and moving on with personal or shared ways of mobility. Furthermore, Ola Autos, which has seen a 150% rise, are also being quite popular.
Bhavish further emphasized that the "Ola rides are safe." He said that over 3 lakh Ola drivers are currently vaccinated and 100% of drivers are likely to get vaccinated soon.
Ola is currently onboarding more driver-partners. Besides, the company is also looking to enter new cities and build newer products to serve the growing mobility demands of the people post-Covid.
Ola Answers "Why does my driver cancel my Ola ride?"
Ola founder cum CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has finally replied to "Why does my driver cancel my Ola ride?" by introducing new features to its ride aggregating app on December 21, 2021.
The aforementioned question is the 2nd most popular question that Bhavish gets. Cab cancellation is something that all of the industry's players face but that issue will soon be bettered with the new feature of the Ola app, which will enable the drivers to see an approx drop location and the payment mode before they accept an Ola ride. Bhavish tweeted, "Enabling drivers is key to reducing cancellations."
The cab aggregating giant has always kept the drop location and the approx payment method hidden from the drivers, however, that somehow was not working out, as pointed out by Vineeta Singh, Sugar cosmetics CEO earlier in August 2021. However, the working of the latest feature has already been enthusiastically confirmed by Vineeta. Here goes her latest tweet:
My @Olacabs driver told me that they've started seeing approximate destinations before accepting a booking! This is fabulous @bhash! Building for India 💪🏻 https://t.co/83uyQwTwSE
Ola has recorded outstanding losses at Rs 17,453 crores during the fiscal that ended in March 2021.
Ola Revenue Breakdown
The operational revenue of the company suffered over a 63% decline in FY21, which was even more than its rival Uber's 47% decline, amounting to around Rs 983.2 crores in the above-mentioned fiscal. The operating revenue for Ola had seen a growth of 4.7% YoY to Rs 2662.63 crore in FY20, as per the annual financial statement of the company with the RoC.
Ride-hailing was the largest segment in operation for the Bengaluru-based company, which accounted for around 90% of the revenue drawn by Ola during FY21. This particular segment also witnessed a massive drop of around 57.8% in collections. The mentioned segment was responsible for bringing close to Rs 2,096 crores in FY20, which was reduced to Rs 884.3 crore in FY21.
Ola collects a considerable amount of revenue from the drivers who often lease out cars from the company's own fleet of vehicles, which was reduced to Rs 33.3 crore in FY21, thereby noticing a significant drop of 93.2% YoY. Ola further witnessed a loss of Rs 982 crores on its ride-hailing and cab-leasing business. The cloud kitchen segment of Ola was another revenue driver for the company, which brought in Rs 65.6 crore for the same during FY21.
Ola Revenue Segments
FY21
FY20
FY19
Ride hailing
Rs 884.3 cr
Rs 2096.1 cr
Rs 1903.2 cr
Car leasing
Rs 33.3 cr
Rs 489.3 cr
Rs 529.3 cr
Financial services
Rs 27.8 cr
Rs 61.6 cr
Rs 29.8 cr
Food
Rs 37.8 cr
Rs 17.7 cr
Rs 81.3 cr
Ola Expenses Breakdown
The company has curtailed its marketing spending and employee benefits though. While the former stood at Rs 600.8 crores in FY20, it was reduced to Rs 436.3 crores in the last fiscal. On the other hand, the marketing costs of the company were lessened by 72.1% to Rs 135.4 crore, which were recorded at Rs 485 crores earlier. Besides, the vehicle running expenses of Ola were also reduced by 96.2% to only Rs 9.33 crore during FY21. Lastly, the "miscellaneous" component in its expenses also shrank from Rs 2,116.84 cr in FY20 to Rs 428.2 crores in FY21.
The total expenditure of OLA was reduced to Rs 2007 cr, during FY21, from Rs 5058 cr (FY20).
Ola Expenditure
FY21
FY20
FY19
Finance and depreciation costs
Rs 538.1 cr
Rs 851.5 cr
Rs 840 cr
Advertising expenses
Rs 135.4 cr
Rs 485 cr
Rs 469 cr
Other operating costs and admin expenses
Rs 1128 cr
Rs 3211 cr
Rs 3657.1 cr
Employee benefit costs
Rs 436.3 cr
Rs 600.8 cr
Rs 755.5 cr
IT expenses
Rs 196.3 cr
Rs 266.8 cr
Rs 280.7 cr
Vehicle costs
Rs 9.33 cr
Rs 245.1 cr
Rs 139 cr
The EBITDA margin of Ola is currently reported to be -25.75% during FY21, thereby showing an improvement from -47.90% in FY20.
Ola is in talks with Microsoft and is expecting to raise $150-200 million from the tech giant soon.As revealed by Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, the company is planning to launch its IPO in the next two years.
Ola Store Renamed as Ola Dash
Ola has started 15-minute delivery or quick delivery service in several parts of Bengaluru. The company has currently decided to deliver grocery, pet care, and personal care products, where Ola will start its 'Ola Store' initially in a few localities in the city and will eventually expand its services to other cities in the upcoming months. This new service will be availed through the Ola app, which will be available for selected customers, where they will be able to choose from around 2000 items. This will make Ola stand as an emerging competitor of brands like Grofers, Big Basket, Swiggy, Dunzo, and more.
Ola Store has further declare that it would be a 10-minute grocery delivery service and has already set up 15 dark stores in Mumbai and Bengaluru, as of November 30, 2021. Ola aims to establish around 300 dark stores for the delivery of groceries and conveniences by January 2022. The firm currently claims to deliver around 1000 orders per day. The leading online cab aggregator has already announced to have fixed a budget of around Rs 250 crore for their supermarket delivery business. This is the third time that Ola has attempted to foray into the segment. Ola Store has been renamed as Ola Dash, as per the rsports dated January 26, 2022. The new name is expected to infuse the element of speed and faster delivery. The Ola Dash network is estimated to expand its network of dark stores to comprise 500 dark stores, which will be spread across 20 cities and will make it the largest dark store network in India, as of January 28, 2022. Ola Dash currently serves 9 cities in total and is spread across 200 dark stores, which offers an assortment of 2500+ SKUs. 'Store to Door' is currently on and is delivering in 10 minutes.
Some key growth statistics of Ola would reflect that:
It completes more than 1 bn rides each year.
The service of Ola is spread over 250 cities.
Ola has empowered more than 1.5 mn entrepreneurs who are currently with Ola as driver-partners.
The company has 7000+ employees working with OLA.
Ola - Startup Challenges
The founders Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati had to face many challenges in the beginning. They worked long hours and sometimes Ankit, the co-founder of Ola, had to code for 48 hours straight. They have had to drive the customer to their desired locations at times because the drivers did not show up. But this did not dampen their spirits. The duo worked day and night and people started liking their services.
The twist in their story happened when angel investors Rohit Bansal and Kunal Bahl invested Rs 2 crores in their business. This gave them an initial push and there was no looking back for Ola from there.
As much as Ola wanted to meet the needs of the customers by scaling up to different cities, each city faced its own infrastructural challenge. The app required the use of the 2G network. The team had to design an app that could accommodate network connectivity in smaller towns.
Ola - Competitors
Ola directly competes with Uber, the world's most well-financed startup having raised more than $24 billion in equity and debt on a recent valuation of $82 billion. Other players in India include:
Ola has acquired 7 organizations in total. GeoSpoc is the latest company that Ola has acquired on October 5, 2021. It was the company's first acquisition in a period of over 2 years after it acquired Pikup.ai on August 13, 2019. ANI Technologies, the parent of the ride-hailing major Ola along with Ola Dash and Ola Foods, the quick commerce delivery, and the cloud kitchen services arm of OLA, completed its acquisition of Foodpanda from Delivery Hero, the Germany-based parent of Foodpanda.
The acquisition of Foodpanda was first announced by Ola in December 2017 for around $200 mn to reinforce its food delivery service. Fast forward to February 5, 2022, the food delivery giant held an extraordinary general meeting where the shareholders of Ola decided to issue 3,793 Series J2 CCPS to Delivery Hero, for Rs 8.5 crore. Mentioning that to acquire 100% of the shares in Foodpanda, the company stated that it will be finally issuing 3,793 Series J2 CCPS to Delivery Hero instead of cash consideration, which will allow the company to acquire 77,10,564 equity shares, which was held by Delivery Hero in foodpanda, as per the news dated February 24, 2022.
Ola had acquired the Pune-based geospatial service provider, GeoSpoc in order to improve their location and geospatial technologies with an undisclosed amount. Talking about the acquisition, CEO and Co-Founder, Bhavish Aggarwal mentioned the need for "better, newer maps and geospatial services" for the "new mobility" and to build the future of location services.
The geospatial sector in India has witnessed quite a growth lately, the market of which, in India, is currently valued at Rs 15,000 crores, and is expected to hit Rs 1 Lakh crores by 2029-2030. The company completes its acquisition of GeoSpoc in full for Rs 26 crore, as per the reports dated December 8, 2021.
Ola had already executed an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), which was worth around $10.5 million (Rs 78.6 crores) for its three former employees and one current executive. Now, the company has further decided to provide ESOP encashment facilities for the former chief executive officer of Ola Foods, Pranay Jivrajka; former chief operating officer of Ola, Pallav Singh; Nimish Joshi, former Vice President, and its current chief product officer, Suvonil Chatterjee.
Among all of them, Jivrajka has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of the ESOP encashment program of Ola with Rs 38.17 crores, who is followed by Pallav Singh, Suvonil Chatterjee, and Nimish Joshi, who possess Rs 24.8 crore, Rs 8.5 crore, and Rs 7.08 crore respectively. Ola has declared this development soon after it announced the expansion of its ESOP pool to Rs 3,000 crore. Furthermore, the company also noted that it will have some fresh stocks, worth Rs 400 crore allocated for the employees in the run-up to its IPO. Ola currently boasts of having one of the largest ESOP pools among the late-stage startups of India, which also includes companies like Paytm, OYO, and Byju's.
Ola is looking to go public in the first quarter of 2022 and will most likely be filing its DRHP (Draft Red Herring Prospectus) in the December quarter. Furthermore, the plans of Ola with its subsidiary, Ola Electric seem big as the EV-manufacturing wing of Ola has already started achieving some major feats.
Ola - FAQs
Is Ola a Chinese Company?
Ola is an Indian Company but is funded by Chinese investors like Tencent Holdings, Steadview Capital, Sailing Capital, Eternal Yield International Ltd, and China-Eurasian Economic Co-operation Fund with an estimated investment of $500 million.
Who are the Ola shareholders?
Ola's major shareholders/investors include SoftBank Group (Japanese), Tiger Global (US-based), Tencent (Chinese Venture Capital), Matrix Partners (US-based), and DST Global (Russia).
Which country is Ola from?
Ola Cabs was founded in Mumbai, India.
Who is the founder of Ola Cabs?
Ola was founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati in 2010.
What is the full form of OLA?
There is no full form as such. The name is derived from the Spanish word 'Hola' that translates to 'hello'.
