Ola Cabs

Ola Cabs (stylised as OLΛ), is an Indian

ridesharing company (TNC) offering
services that include peer-to-peer
ridesharing, ride service hailing, taxi and
food delivery. The company is based in
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India and was
developed by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
As of October 2019, Ola was valued at
about $10 billion.[3] A variety of venture
capitalists including Softbank have large
stakes in the company.[4]
 Ola Cabs

Type Private
Industry Transportation

Founded 3 December 2010

Founder Bhavish Aggarwal

Headquarters Bengaluru, India[1]

Area served India,

Australia,
New Zealand,
UK
(169+ cities)
Key people Bhavish Aggarwal
CEO
Ankit Bhati CTO
Products Mobile app, website
Services Vehicle for hire
Delivery (commerce)
Food delivery
Revenue ₹2,222 crore
(US$310 million)[2] (FY
2018)
Number of 6,000 (2017)
employees
Subsidiaries Foodpanda India
Ola Electric Mobility
Website Ola Cabs

Ola Cabs was founded on 3 December

2010 as an online cab aggregator in
Mumbai, and is now based in Bengaluru.
As of 2019, the company has expanded to
a network of more than 15 lakh (1.5
million) drivers across 250 cities.[5] In
November 2014, Ola diversified to
incorporate auto rickshaws on a trial basis
in Bengaluru.[6] After the trial phase, Ola
Auto expanded to other cities like Delhi,
Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad starting in
December 2014.

In January 2018, Ola extended into its first

overseas market, Australia, and in New
Zealand in September 2018.[7] In March
2019, Ola began its UK operations
introducing auto rickshaws in UK. More
than 10,000 drivers have applied both in
online and offline mode ahead of its
launch in London.
History
In March 2015, Ola Cabs acquired
Bengaluru based taxi service TaxiForSure
for approximately ₹1,394 crore (US$200
million).[8] June 2015 onwards, Ola users
gained access to TFS cabs via the Ola
mobile application.[9] Later in the year in
November, Ola further acquired Geotagg, a
trip-planning applications company, for an
undisclosed sum.[10]

In a move to expand beyond cab

aggregation, Ola acquired struggling
foodtech company Foodpanda with an eye
on leveraging the growing food delivery
segment business in December 2017.[11]
In April 2018, Ola made its second
acquisition with Ridlr (formerly Traffline), a
public transport ticketing app.[12] Later in
August 2018, Ola financed Series A
funding of the scooter rent startup Vogo,
and again in December, invested another
$100 million.[13]

The Karnataka state transport department

suspended Ola's operating license for six
months for violation of licence conditions
and violation of Karnataka On-Demand
Transportation Technology Aggregator
Rules, 2016. This was on account of Ola
running bike taxi services though it only
had license for four wheeler taxi
operations. The company termed the order
unfortunate and was looking at working
with driving partners to continue
functioning. They also claimed to be in
touch with authorities to sort things out.[14]

Services

An Ola car on roads of Hyderabad

Ola offers different levels of service,
ranging from economic to luxury travel.[15]
The cabs are reserved through a mobile
app and also through their website and the
service accepts both cash and cashless
payments with Ola money.[16] It claims to
clock an average of more than 1,50,000
bookings per day and commands 60% of
the market share in India as of 2014.[17]

Service category …

Auto-Rickshaw
Bike
E-Rickshaw
Luxury
Luxury SUV
Micro
Mini
Outstation
Prime Executive
Prime Play
Prime Sedan
Prime SUV
Rental
Share
Share (Express)
Shuttle (Closed)
Taxi (AC/Non-AC)
Ola Electric Mobility
Ola spunoff its electric vehicles business
into a separate unit called Ola Electric
Mobility with US$56 million of funding
capital in February 2019. The funding was
provided by Tiger Global and Matrix India.
Apart from electric vehicles, Ola Electric
also works on charging solutions, EV
batteries and developing viable
infrastructure to allow commercial EVs to
operate at scale.[18] The company
announced on 6 May 2019 that Ratan Tata
had invested an undisclosed amount in
Ola Electric as part of its Series A round of
funding.[19][20]
Ola Electric raised $250 million from
SoftBank during Series B round funding in
July 2019, earning a valuation of over $1
billion.[21]

Anand Shah, co-founder, Ola Electric and

senior VP, Ola Cabs said that Ola Electric
will need more capital to achieve its target
of putting 10 lakh (1 million) EVs on the
roads by 2021.[22]

Criticism

Technology …

Ola Cabs' technology came under criticism

regarding the security of its mobile app.
The API calls could be replayed to top up
its wallet.[23]

In August 2016, a privacy breach occurred

when customers' details such as names,
phone numbers and addresses, in
Bengaluru, were received as SMS
messages by an individual in Chennai.
Although these unanticipated messages
were reported to Ola, the company ignored
them, even under the threat of being
reported to the TRAI.[24] The issue was
reportedly fixed three weeks later after
receiving considerable media coverage
and social media attention.[25]
Overcharging and lack of …

transparency in charging

The refund policy of Ola Cabs has been

criticised because of charging errors
caused by technical glitches in their
system.[26] Surge pricing has been an
issue with customers, as Ola is said to
initially eliminate competition by lowering
prices, and then hiking up prices through
what it calls surge pricing. The fact that
the same ride can cost different amounts
depending on the time, day and the
profiles, history and rating of the driver as
well as passenger has also incurred much
customer wrath.[27]
Driver concerns …

Ola from January 2017 has been highly

criticised for continuously dropping the
driver incentives which in turn is affecting
driver-partner's monthly income. Most
nowadays fail to cope up with their
monthly EMIs and other dues. Daily
income of cab drivers is now equal to auto
drivers running in the city after deducting
all dues.[28]

Charges comprise:

Base fare (fixed amount)

Distance fare (charged per kilometre)
 Ride time fare (charged per time taken
to travel)
Peak pricing (direct ratio depending on
demand for cabs)[29]
GST (5%)
Toll charges (toll collection if crossing a
toll junction)

Ola and Uber have also been criticised due

to their practice of baiting drivers and
passengers, initially with discounts and
bonuses, and then hiking up fares without
passing the proceeds to drivers. Their
practice of taking large signing up
amounts from drivers and not considering
them employees has also been criticised.
Both companies contractually treat drivers
as "contractors" thus excusing themselves
from any legal obligations.[27] In an
interview, Pranay Jivrajka, a co-founder of
OLA, claimed that the company will be
creating 50 lakh new "opportunities" in the
next five years. He was, however, careful
not use the word jobs for these
opportunities. He added that it was not
just about jobs but creating an
ecosystem.[30]

Assaults on and Murders of Ola cab

drivers …

There have been 11 cases of murders, and

over 90 cases of kidnapping and robbery
of drivers working for app-based cab
aggregators including Ola, by criminals
posing as passengers using fake
profiles.[31] The most recent case
happened in the city of Pune in June 2019
when a passenger killed the driver to steal
his car.[32] Two other murders of Ola
drivers by robbers took place in New Delhi
and Agra respectively.[33]

Driver credibility …

Panic button for passengers in an Ola car in Kolkata

Delhi Transport authority in early 2015
questioned the credibility and required
verification of drivers working for Ola,
along with other competitors such as Uber.
The inquiry revealed that approximately
80% of drivers amongst all services did not
possess permits to ply commercial
transport services in Delhi.[34] Drivers also
protested[35] outside the Kukatapally,
Hyderabad office of Ola, demanding more
transparency over payments.

References
1. Technologies, Olacabs - ANI. "About
 us - Car rental - car hire - taxi India -
olacabs.com" . www.olacabs.com.
2. "Ola halves losses, revenue up 61%" .
economictimes.com. 23 June 2017.
Retrieved 1 February 2019.
3. https://www.moneycontrol.com/news
/business/companies/ola-valued-at-
10-billion-in-ongoing-funding-round-
4584971.html . Missing or empty
|title= (help)
4. "https://thewire.in/business/ola-uber-
merger-competition-commission-
approval" . The Wire. 29 April 2018.
Retrieved 19 March 2019. External link
in |title= (help)
5. "Inside the data driven model of Ola
with Sanjay Kharb, VP- Engineering,
Ola - ET CIO" . ETCIO.com. Retrieved
2 November 2019.
6. "Now Book Auto Rickshaws in
Bangalore via Ola Cabs" . NDTV
Gadgets. 20 November 2014.
7. "India's Ola forays into New Zealand in
latest overseas push" . Reuters.
Retrieved 18 September 2018.
8. Shrivastava, Aditi (29 January 2015).
"Olacabs to buy TaxiForSure to take
on competitors like Uber; deal likely at
Rs 1,250 crore" . The Economic
Times.
 9. Mandal, Suchayan (25 June 2015).
"Ola cabs app and Taxi For Sure get
into a relationship. Twitter trolls prove
how complex it is" . Business Insider
India.
10. Russell, Jon (17 August 2016). "Ola
confirms it has shut down
TaxiForSure, the rival it acquired for
$200M" . TechCrunch.
11. Russell, Jon (18 December 2017).
"Uber rival Ola buys Foodpanda India
to get into food deliveries" .
TechCrunch. Oath Inc. Retrieved
20 December 2017.
12. Chaudhary, Suman (3 April 2018). "Ola
Acquires Mumbai-based Public
Transport Ticketing App Ridlr" .
IndianWeb2. IndianWeb2.com.
Retrieved 3 April 2018.
13. "Ola, Uber's India rival, invests $100M
in scooter rental startup Vogo" .
TechCrunch. Retrieved 18 December
2018.
14. "Ola cabs banned in Bengaluru for
licence violation - Times of India" .
The Times of India. Retrieved
23 March 2019.
15. "Ola aims to counter Uber with its Biz-
class service" . The Economic Times.
 2 September 2014.
16. "Pay gas and electricity bills with Ola
Money" . FactorDaily. 28 November
2016. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
17. Abudheen, Sainul K (19 November
2014). "Ola now has $250-300M
annual gross transaction run rate;
peek at its numbers - VCCircle" .
VCCircle.com.
18. "India's Ola spins out a dedicated EV
business — and it just raised $56M
from investors" . TechCrunch.
Retrieved 7 May 2019.
19. "Ratan Tata Invests in Ola Electric
Mobility" . NDTV. Retrieved 7 May
 2019.
20. Bansal, Varsha (6 May 2019). "Ratan
Tata raises stake in Ola, invests in
fledgling electric vehicle business" .
Mint. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
21. Bansal, Varsha (2 July 2019). "Ola
Electric races to unicorn status with
$250-million fundraise from
SoftBank" . Mint. Retrieved 2 July
2019.
22. Panday, Amit (3 July 2019). "We are
working on how to make EVs ultra-
affordable: Ola Electric's Anand
Shah" . Retrieved 3 July 2019.
23. Aggarwal, Varun; Murali, Malavika (20
March 2015). "Taxi aggregator Ola hit
by tech glitches that allow free rides" .
The Economic Times.
24. Anand, Kunal (30 August 2015). "Ola
Cabs Accidentally Reveals Customer
Data To Chennai Girl, And Doesn't
Care" . Indiatimes.com.
25. "Ola leaked its customers data, claims
user; company blames manual error" .
The Indian Express. 1 September
2015.
26. "Decoding OLA Cabs Billing Issues –
Ola ka Gola!" . Trak.in. 13 May 2015.
27. "Ola, Uber and the Precarious Future
of Blue Collar Platform Workers" . The
Wire. 26 March 2018. Retrieved
19 March 2019.
28. "Ola, Uber cut driver pay by a third in 1
year" . economictimes.com. 18
September 2017.
29. "4: Peak Pricing [Direct Ratio
depending on demand for cabs]" .
30. Ravi Agrawal (1 October 2018). India
Connected: How the Smartphone is
Transforming the World's Largest
Democracy . Oxford University Press.
p. 74. ISBN 978-0-19-085867-4.
31. https://dbpost.com/not-only-
passengers-even-cabbies-are-at-risk-
of-getting-killed/
32. "Pune: Two men book Ola cab to
murder driver, steal car" (June 24
2019). The Indian Express. Express
News Service. 24 June 2019.
Retrieved 3 July 2019.
33. HT Correspondent. "Delhi Police arrest
two men for Ola cabbie's murder" .
Hindustan Times (August 29, 2018).
Retrieved 14 August 2019.
34. "80% of Uber, Ola does not have
permits to ply in Delhi, says minister" .
The Indian Express. 19 June 2015.
 35. Reddy (30 December 2016). "Cab
Drivers Attack Ola Office in
Kukatpally" . Newshub. Retrieved
6 May 2018.

External links
Official website

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