Ola, the homegrown cab-hailing service is now expanding its operations in Australia to include the cities of Brisbane, Gold Coast and Canberra.
“Customers in these cities can book discounted rides using Ola app starting Tuesday,” said the Bengaluru-based online cab aggregator in a statement.
Ola was founded in 2011 by Bhavish Aggarwal and has been since competing against US cab-hailing firm Uber for market share. The cab-aggregator claims to own over 125 million users in 110 cities across India. Ola began operations in Australia in January 2018 with the cities of Perth, Sydney and Melbourne being the first to benefit from the Indian service.
Up to now, 30,000 driver-partners are working under the ride-sharing service’s name, the statement added.
“As we continue to expand across Australia, we have seen that customers and driver-partners are choosing Ola over competitors for the best ride-share experience possible. By doing so, everyone is choosing an affordable and better way to move,”
stated Chandra Nath, vice president and head of Ola’s international business.
“Over the coming months, Ola is working on its roll-out in other Australian cities, Adelaide, Darwin and Hobart,” the statement claimed.
Ola is currently competing with Uber, Australian-based GoCatch and Taxify for market shares in the Australian cab-hailing sector. GoCatch recently raised a funding round of $11 million while Taxify saw $2 million poured in their funds. As for Bengaluru-based Ola, it last raised $1.1 billion from Tencent and Softbank in October 2017. Additionally, the Indian cab aggregator is looking forward to raise another round of funding estimated to be worth $1 billion from new and existing investors.
Ola’s international quest is a recurrent trend among Indian startups who are backed by rich resources and eager to exploit the benefits of operating internationally. After foraying in Australia, the cab-aggregator is looking forward to begin operations in several additional countries.