The Success Story of Ola Cab

'Ola' is an organization that is known to almost everyone and there is no need for introduction. This company has solved the problem of several people. There are people who do not have their own vehicles or only one vehicle in their houses. So earlier, people of India had to face a lot of difficulties as voyaging is a part of everyday life. 

 

There are people who generally don't prefer to travel in public transport like buses, auto due to the crowd, safety issues, and many more reasons. Also, if you are not a resident in a particular city then Ola Cab is the best option for travelling.

 

Hence, the two IIT students who have experienced this problem have gone through this in detail and finally solved the issue by introducing the Ola cab, as;

 

1. Ola cab is the first cab introduced in India who has made satisfying cab services a glossy experience.

2. It was introduced in the year 2010 and due to reasonable price, people started liking their services. 

3. Ola is India's homegrown ride-hailing application with about 60% market share (starting at 2014) in India with clients across 100 cities of India and 15 lakh driver-accomplices.

 

So, in this blog, we will see how the founders of Ola Cab got this innovative idea, what are the challenges they faced, the history of Ola Cab, its competitors, and many more in detail.

 

 

Who are the Founders of Ola’s Cab?

 

Bhavish Aggarwal is the founder and Ankit Bhati is the co-founder of Ola. They founded Ola in the year 2010 in Mumbai. In the year 2008, Bhavish graduated from IIT Bombay with a B.Tech in Computer Science. He also served 2 years in Microsoft Research in Bangalore. According to December 2019 data, including revenue of Ola Cabs, his net worth is Rs. 3135 cr. Nevertheless, his real net worth is yet unknown.

 

The co-founder Ankit Bhati joined Bhavish in November 2010 in this project. He deals with the technological facets as Chief Technology Officer. He is a B.Tech. graduated from IIT Bombay in Mechanical Engineering and M. Tech. in CAD & Automation. At a very young age, they become the Youngest Billionaire of India. They were only 25 and 26 years old when they established this company. Their brilliant ideas and struggle are now benefiting a lot of people travelling. 

 

By 2014, OLA had a network of 200,000 vehicles across 100 urban communities in the nation. Accepting more than 150,000 bookings every day, OLA is a commanding power in the Indian market. The significant credit for Ola's outcomes goes to Bhavish's sheer discernment. (Similar blog: The tale of Zomato)

 

How Did the Idea of Ola Cab Enter?

 

Ola Cabs is an outcome of the torment point frequently suffered by Bhavish Aggarwal. He while journeying to Bandipur from Bangalore was left abandoned in his journey by the driver. The explanation is that he was not ready to renegotiate the already talked payment by the driver. This helpless experience made him give something to think about to pioneer a beneficial and satisfying cab service. In the end, in December 2010, he gave the last touch to his vision alongside co-founder Ankit Bhati.

 

The name Ola was taken from the Spanish word "Hola" which says "Hello". So, by this, the owners want to say that their services are easy and gracious. There are more people who helped Bhavish and Ankit in fulfilling their dream project. 

 

Usha Loutongbam who was the product manager helped Bhavish in the design and vision part. There are two more members who made this project more productive. Ajinkya Potdar who created the first version for Android and Kushal Bokadye who created for iOS. Have a glance at these simple steps to know how to use Ola App?

 

 

What about Customer Acquisition and Consolidation?

 

OLA has additionally got into three worldwide business sectors listed as Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Thus, in Australia, it has set-up strategies in seven cities. Also, it professes to have enlisted 41,000 drivers on its application there. In March 2019, OLA started its projects in The United Kingdom by presenting Auto Rickshaws.

 

Accordingly, till now Ola cabs have gained 5 new corporations. Prior to that, it gained FoodPanda India. Also, different ventures were Geotagg which is an excursion plotting application in June 2015. OLA is the most famous ride-hailing application with about 65% market stake in India. By 2018, the organization has extended to more than 10, 00,000 vehicles across 168 urban areas having an income of 110 million USD.

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Logo of Ola and Ola App

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As we all know that Ola is an Indian company but it was sponsored by some Chinese investors. For example, Tencent Holdings, Steadview Capital, Eternal Yield International Ltd, China-Eurasian Economic Co-operation Fund with an approximate involvement of $500 million. (Read another Success story of Flipkart)

 

 

What are Startup-challenges?

 

As we all know that behind every successful brand or even any successful person there was a challenge which they confronted in the beginning. Hence, the same happened in this case. 

1. At first, the creators Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati had to confront countless obstacles. 

2. They struggled long hours, even sometimes the co-founder of Ola Ankit had to code for 48 hours straight. 

3. Even some of the time they have had to drive the client to their locations as the drivers had not arrived. However, this didn't deaden their confidence. They worked day and night and finally, people began loving their services. 

 

Nevertheless, in the year 2012, they faced a challenge which was like a nightmare to the creators. They faced a problem with website blunder. At that time, Ankit was in Bangalore and Bhavish was in Mumbai. Ankit was left with no option but he guided Bhavish on call the entire night who was dealing with the outage in Mumbai.

 

However, with their success and diligence, they got out of the circumstances perfectly. After that, they decided to switch their workplace from Mumbai to Banglore. In the same year, they launched their mobile application.

 

 

Who are the Competitors of Ola?

 

Ola has straightforward competition with Uber and in the bike part now Rapido is giving a tough competition to Ola. There are other competitors in India like Meru Cabs Company Pvt. Ltd. which owns Meru cabs, Carzonrent (India) Pvt. Ltd which controls Carzonrent and Zoomcar India Private. Ltd. which acquires Zoomcar. 

 

In 2016, Ola confronted a furious competitor from TaxiForSure which was moreover an indigenous cab aggregator startup. Ola obtained TaxiForSure and proceeded with its strength.

 

Throughout the most recent year, Ola has been broadening its scope of services. It began offering an assortment of ride choices from financial plan to extravagance, membership bargains, and in-vehicle amusement. They don't just give taxis offices yet in addition, they incorporate motorbikes and Auto Rickshaws at modest costs. They also offer the facility of sharing the cab.

 

"Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has disclosed that the organization is scheduling to initiate an IPO in the coming two years."

 

Conclusion

 

So, in conclusion, we can say that Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati have helped several people by starting this Ola cab project. It is very easy to operate the Ola app, about one touch only and the driver will reach your location in a very short interval of time. While travelling in Ola there is no need to worry about the parking area or anything else. 

 

Ola is cost-effective and people who don't want to travel in auto also get their desire fulfilled by offering a car drive. Even they are broadening their facilities. They are now providing the bike facility which is very beneficial for the people who want to travel alone or in a hurry and want to avoid traffic. Thus, this is the success story of Ola, and we all can realize how Ola has become a vital part of our day to day life.