OlaCabs, popularly known as ola, is a mobile app for personal transportation in India.

Ola
started as an online cab aggregator in Mumbai, now based out of Bangalore and is among the
fastest growing businesses in India.[citation needed]
It was founded on 3 December 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal (currently CEO) and Ankit Bhati. By
2014, the company has expanded to a network of more than 200,000 cars across 85 cities. In
November 2014, Ola expanded to incorporate autos on-trial basis in Bengaluru. [1] Post the
trial phase, Ola Auto expanded to other cities like Delhi, Pune and Chennai starting December
2014. value of ola as on September 2015 is $5 billion

Contents
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1 Service
2 Funding
3 Acquisitions
4 Employee Relations
5 Criticism
5.1 Technology
5.2 Over billing and transparency in billing
5.3 Driver Credibility
6 References

Service[edit]
Ola provides different types of cab service ranging from economic to luxury travel. [2] The cabs
are reserved through a web browser or a mobile app. This cab service supports both cash and
cashless payment options with Ola money. It claims to clock an average of more than 150,000
bookings per day and commands 60 percent of the market share in India.[3]

Funding[edit]
It raised $330k[4] in its initial round of funding on April 21, 2011. The company received Series
A funding of $5 million from Tiger Global Management; Series B funding of USD 20 million
from Matrix Partners and Tiger Global; Series C funding of $41.5 million from Steadview
Capital, Sequoia Capital and its existing investors. In Series D round of funding on Oct 25,
2014, it raised $210 million from SoftBank Internet and Media Inc. and its existing investors.
[5][6][7] Despite failing to break even in 5 years, Ola Cabs managed to attract new
investment on the back of expanding topline and balance sheet.

Acquisitions[edit]
OlaCabs bought TaxiForSure or TFS on 1 March 2015,[8] for about $200 million.[9] From the
25th of June 2015, Ola users have gained access to TFS cabs via the Ola mobile application.
[10]

Employee Relations[edit]
Ola Cabs has tied up with Avanti Learning Centres for a good cause. The drivers who are
associated with Ola can get their children studying in the ninth and tenth standard to the
learning centre and avail free education.
Ola Gurukul will start off with a batch of 500 students in Mumbai. The initiative will be
extended to provide free stationary, books and other apparatus for the top performing
students. The students program will be held after school so that the students get the much
needed attention while also saving on tuition classes costs.[11]

Criticism[edit]
Technology[edit]
OlaCabs' technology came under criticism regarding the security of its mobile app. The API
calls could be replayed to top up its wallet.[12]
In August 2015, a privacy breach had occurred when intended customers' details such as
names, phone numbers and addresses, in Bengaluru, were received as SMS messages by an
individual in Chennai. Although these unanticipated messages were reported to Ola, the
company had chosen to ignore them, even under the threat of being reported to the TRAI.
[13] The issue was reportedly fixed three weeks later after receiving considerable media
coverage and social media attention.[14]

Over billing and transparency in billing[edit]

The refund policy of OlaCabs has been criticised because of billing errors caused by technical
glitches in their system.[15] Hackers have claimed that they have been able to hack OlaCabs
system and access customer data including credit card/debit card information. OlaCabs have
categorically denied that their system was hacked.[16]

Driver Credibility[edit]
The Delhi Transport authority in early 2015 questioned the credibility and required verification
of drivers plying Ola cabs, along with other competitors like Uber and TaxiForSure. The inquiry
has revealed that approximately 80% of drivers amongst all services did