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Ola Hires Pranav Tiwari, Sanjay Kharb to Lead Its Engineering Operation

13Feb By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Ola Hires Pranav Tiwari, Sanjay Kharb to Lead Its Engineering Operation

Transportation app Ola today said it has roped in two new executives, Pranav Tiwari and Sanjay Kharb, to strengthen its core technology leadership. Tiwari, former CTO of Cellworks, has joined Ola as Vice President of Engineering and will work towards optimising growth and profitability by bringing in necessary efficiencies in the supply chain function, Ola said in a statement. An ex-Googler, he has over 35 patents in his name. Under him, the team will focus on building solutions that effectively optimise use of vehicles on the platform, reduce deviations in routes and improve customer-driver matching. Kharb, who was earlier VP Production Engineering at InMobi, has joined as Vice President of Engineering Infrastructure and will strengthen efficiencies in Ola's technology infrastruct...

Ola Appoints Vishal Kaul as Chief Operating Officer

23Jan By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Ola Appoints Vishal Kaul as Chief Operating Officer

Ola, India’s most popular mobile app for transportation, today announced the appointment of Vishal Kaul as its Chief Operating Officer. Vishal is a PepsiCo veteran, who has been with the company since the start of his career in 1999. He has held key leadership positions across operations, sales and marketing in his career spanning 18 years within the company. Vishal was most recently the General Manager of PepsiCo Foods for Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. As COO, Vishal will head Ola’s operations, strengthen Ola’s market leadership, expand its reach to nooks and corners of the country and widen the base of Ola's customers and driver-partner fraternity, in line with its mission to build mobility for a billion Indians. The mobility opportunity is massive with over 300 million trips happening ...

Ola, Uber Welcomed Indian Government Decision on Regulating The Taxi Industry

22Dec By NitishNo Comments

News

Ola, Uber Welcomed Indian Government Decision on Regulating The Taxi Industry

Leading ride-hailing firms have praised an Indian policy blueprint on regulating the taxi industry, saying it would offer their app-based services a chance to flourish despite their concerns about price caps. A committee set up by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways recently published its findings, stating that India needed one regulatory framework for the taxi industry to promote mobility and discourage car ownership. It also said that aggregators, such as Uber, Ola and Meru, should be included under a "fair, uniform and transparent" regulatory framework, along with radio taxis and traditional city taxis. The report's recommendations came against a backdrop of battles with city authorities on issues such as dynamic, or "surge", pricing that the ride hailing firms say they ne...

Innovation Helped us Hold Over 3/4th Market Share: Ola COO Pranay Jivrajka

19Dec By PriyankaNo Comments

Entrepreneurs Talk

Innovation Helped us Hold Over 3/4th Market Share: Ola COO Pranay Jivrajka

Transport aggregator Ola today said its India-focussed innovations like offline booking and local language apps have helped the homegrown company "effectively hold onto over three-fourth market share". The SoftBank-backed firm, which is locked in an intense battle with US-based Uber, also claimed that every bit of technology it has built has been "made from the ground up without any premise to use as a base". "When they (Uber) launched in India in 2013, Ola hardly had a first mover advantage as we were doing just about 2,000 bookings a day. In spite of this, we have continued to build on our innovations effectively holding onto over three-fourth of the market-share," Ola COO Pranay Jivrajka told Pixr8. He added that the focus needs to be on localisation for building customised products f...

Home Grown Startups Like “Ola and Flipkart” Losing Confidence: Saurabh Srivastava, IAN, Co-founder

14Dec By AnkitaNo Comments

Entrepreneurs Talk

Home Grown Startups Like “Ola and Flipkart” Losing Confidence: Saurabh Srivastava, IAN, Co-founder

Indian startups playing up the 'home-grown' card and asking government to shut doors to global companies indicate that companies are losing confidence, entrepreneur and angel investor Saurabh Srivastava said today. Instead, companies need to focus on ways to create an "enabling environment" without closing the doors for foreign players, he said. "One needs to have a balanced matured view... I think, we are losing confidence... there's no reason for that... We should make sure that the environment that we have is fair, free and level-playing field," Srivastava, who is also the chairman and co-founder of Indian Angel Network (IAN) said at a media briefing ahead of the TiE Global Summit. He added that while Indian companies should not be at a disadvantage, the focus needs to be on "how to c...

Now You Can Dispense 2000 Rs Cash From Ola Cab

27Nov By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Now You Can Dispense 2000 Rs Cash From Ola Cab

After petrol pumps, cash can now be withdrawn by swiping debit cards at select Ola cabs as India's largest ride-hailing service partners with lenders like State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank to ease cash crunch. With banks and ATMs not being able to cope with the rush for access to lower denomination or new currency after old Rs 500 and 1,000 notes were banned, cash dispensing through swipe of debit cards at POS machines was introduced at around 3,700 petrol pumps. The same is being replicated by Ola on a test basis in its cabs in Kolkata and Hyderabad where taxis with a bank officer and POS machine are parked at different locations and dispense cash of Rs 2,000 per card. Ola Chief Operating Officer Pranay Jivrajka told PIXR8 that the initial response has been trem...

Ola Launches Ola Play, Connected Car Platform For Ride Sharing

22Nov By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Ola Launches Ola Play, Connected Car Platform For Ride Sharing

Claiming it to be a global first, cab aggregator Ola today launched Ola Play, a connected car platform for ride sharing that it said will transform the in-car experience for users on the go like never before. "Ola Play is a world first, built in India by an Indian team, which showcases that we can do better than the best in the world and be global leaders in technology and innovation," Co-founder and CEO of Ola, Bhavish Aggarwal, told reporters here. Ola Play will be made available on Ola Prime in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi for select customers and will be rolled out across other cities and to over 50,000 vehicles by March 2017, he added. Ola Play is powered by proprietary in-car and cloud technologies from Ola, by bringing advance car controls, choice of personalised content and...

Uber Enter Into Billion Dollar Market “Indian Weddings”, Launched UberWEDDINGS in 12 Cities

22Nov By NitishNo Comments

News

Uber Enter Into Billion Dollar Market “Indian Weddings”, Launched UberWEDDINGS in 12 Cities

Taxi-hailing app Uber has partnered WedMeGood, a wedding planning website, to offer mobility solutions for wedding-related travel called UberWEDDINGS in 12 Indian cities. UberWEDDINGS will be live till February 2017 and will provide convenient, hassle-free and cashless mobility solution to users in New Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Ludhiana, Pune, Udaipur and Lucknow, Uber India said in a statement. Apart from India, Uber offers UberWEDDINGS in Washington DC, San Francisco, New York, Boston and LA as well. "Weddings in India are typically an elaborate affair, often spanning month-long planning and week-long celebrations involving family and friends. While we all enjoy the fun and celebration, they also bring in the logistical challen...

Demonetisation: Ola Launches Ola Credit a Post Paid Service

17Nov By NitishNo Comments

News

Demonetisation: Ola Launches Ola Credit a Post Paid Service

Cab aggregator Ola announced the launch of Ola Credit - a postpaid service to enable hassle-free mobility to citizens who can now pay later for their rides. Claiming to be a first in the industry, the service is being launched at a time when cash conservation is important for many citizens, the company said. The service comes against the backdrop of demonetisation of high value currencies by government in its fight against black money, a move that has also resulted in cash crunch. Ola Credit will give customers 7 days of credit so they can keep booking Ola cabs without worrying about having sufficient cash, it said in a statement here. Ola Credit can be repaid via net banking, debit or credit cards easily through the widely accepted Ola Money e-wallet which is integrated into the app...

Self Driving Won’t Work in India Because Nobody Obeys Driving Rules: RC Bhargava

6Nov By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

Entrepreneurs Talk

Self Driving Won’t Work in India Because Nobody Obeys Driving Rules: RC Bhargava

At a time when the automotive world is bullish on self driving cars, Maruti Suzuki Chairman R C Bhargava says such autonomous vehicles will not work in India as "nobody obeys any of the driving rules". "I would love to see people try and put that technology to use in the Indian driving conditions," Bhargava said. At an interaction here late last evening, he was asked about his views on self driving cars and how were they likely to impact the traditional automobile industry. "I think no technology will work here when nobody obeys any of the driving rules, no nobody obeys any of the systems which are there. How will you devise a technology that will predict customer behaviour, nobody can predict customer behaviour?" he said. Asked about the impact of taxi aggregators like Ola and...

Ola Ties Up With BMW, Expands On Demand Luxury Ride Service

25Oct By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

Ola Ties Up With BMW, Expands On Demand Luxury Ride Service

Leading taxi-hailing app Ola on Monday partnered with luxury car maker BMW, which the two companies claimed will go a long way in redefining on-demand luxury mobility in India. Ola claims it has around half a million drivers on its platform and the service, Ola Lux, is available in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru to begin with, and will shortly commence in Hyderabad. Ola already has tie-ups with luxury car makers Mercedes and Jaguar and also with Mahindra and Tata Motors. Other OEMs like Maruti Suzuki, Toyota and Nissan also have such association with aggregators. BMW India acting president Frank Schloeder said the partnership is not exclusive, but will offer 100 per cent financing from BMW Finance, assured buyback and two-year free insurance maintenance. Pranay Jivrajka, chief ope...

Softbank Looking To Invest 2000 Crores in OLA

24Oct By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

Softbank Looking To Invest 2000 Crores in OLA

As per Economic Times report, Japan's leading telecom giant Softbank looking to invest Rs 1,700-2,000 crore in India's leading Taxi aggregator Ola. This is the first funding investment from Softbank after Nikesh Arora Exit. According to the sources, " SoftBank is looking to commit more capital but Ola wants to control dilution". Ola was valued at about $5 billion when it closed $500 million funding from China’s Didi Chuxing and Scottish investment firm Baillie Gifford in November last year. The new investment will not increase the value. So far, Ola has raised about $1.2 billion and counts Soft-Bank, New Yorkbased investment firm Tiger Global Management, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner’s DST Global and venture capital firm Matrix Partners India as its largest shareholders. Las...