The homegrown cab aggregator Ola has been on an expansion spree lately and is expanding itself in various international regions including UK and Australia. Soon after this, the company announced its plans to enter the New Zealand market starting with Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.
However, the date of launch has not been mentioned as of now. With this announcement, New Zealand becomes the third international market that Ola will enter into this year after rolling out its services in Australia in February and UK in August. For this purpose, the company has appointed Brian Dewil as Country Manager for New Zealand.
“I’m excited to build the local team and business in New Zealand and provide a healthy contribution to the nation’s local mobility infrastructure”, said Brian Dewil, Country Manager NZ.
The ride-hailing platform has been expanding to international markets for a long time now. The move is based on the company’s strategy of expanding to locations where there is considerable Indian migrant population, low regulatory challenges, and larger ticket sizes per ride.
Ola was founded by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati in 2011. The company has been backed by investors including Softbank, DST Global, Tiger Global and Tencent Holdings. Also, the cab aggregator has raised $50 million to give a tough fight to the international cab aggregator Uber. The company may also use these funds in its expansion plans.
The homegrown player will compete with Uber in Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, and Zoomy in Auckland and Wellington. To deal with the competition and lure drivers to the platform, they are being offered a low commission rate of 9% as opposed to the standard market rate of between 20-25%.