San Fransisco based cab hailing company Uber said on Wednesday that it would be doubling up investment in India to take on the arch contender Ola.
Uber’s maiden COO Barney Hardford said that India has such a huge potential that the company would not settle for minority stake deals here.The world’s most valued startup comments have come up amidst the speculations of a potential merger between its India unit and home built opponent Ola.
Hardford said,
India is absolutely a core market, now and in the future. Uber’s success is hardcoded to India’s success. Our merger with Grab Holdings in Southeast Asia has freed up resources for the company to channelize into this market.
The company had set up a $1 billion investmnet in 2015 and also opened a support centre in Hyderabad with an investment of around $50 million.
Presently, Uber is operational in 30 Indian cities while Ola is active in 110 cities accounting for more than 45% share, as per the Counterpoint Research.
Both the rivals are backed by the Japanese firm, the Softbank Group which had recently been in the scenes behind Uber and Grab Merger.
Amit Jain, Uber India’s head said that company as of now is not looking forward to expanding its services to any other cities in India but focusing to increase an overall Uber Pool in the country. “The ride-hailing firm contributes 30% to the total number of Uber rides in India when compared to 60% in the other markets where Uber is operating”.
Senior executives further informed that the company is looking forward to bring new services like Express Pool to India. The service is already available in the US and is an affordable version of the current riding service, whereby a rider is asked to walk to a nearest en-route spot so that the other riders are not kept waiting.