Billion Dollar Unicorns: Ola at Crossroads

The constant strikes at both Ola and Uber following a cut in driver incentives have taken a toll on their growth. Ola and Uber together grew just 20% to 3.5 million rides per day in 2018 across all segments, including taxis, autorickshaws, and shared cabs. Compare this to 2016 when they collectively grew 90% to 1.9 million rides in 2016 and 57% to 2.8 million rides a day in 2017. Despite losses and slow growth, India’s largest ride-hailing service Ola Cabs recently raised $50 million that valued it at about $4.3 billion, making it the second most valuable Billion Dollar Unicorn in India. 

Ola’s Offerings

ANI Technologies, which operates as Ola Cabs, was founded in 2011 by CEO Bhavish Aggarwal and CTO Ankit Bhati in Mumbai. It is now based in Bangalore. Its cab services can be booked through the Ola mobile app. The services range from affordable Ola Micro that charges Rs 6 ($0.09) per Km to superior Ola Lux that charges Rs 25 ($0.4) per Km. Since 2015, it has also expanded its offerings to outstation rides, bikes, three-wheeler auto-rickshaws, and shuttle buses. Its service uses over 1 million vehicles in 169 cities. It has over 6,000 employees.

In November 2016, the company launched Ola Play wherein the car is fitted with entertainment options and users can listen to their favorite music or watch HD episodes of favorite TV shows. In cities that are crippled with traffic that stretches the average ride time to over 45 minutes, the company sees it as a critical move to win over customers.

Ola has also expanded its offerings to the enterprise sector with Ola corporate. It lets employees book a cab for business travel and have it expensed directly to the company account. It also offers Ola Select, a subscription plan at INR 1,299 ($18) per month that protects users from surge pricing and offers benefits like Wi-Fi, priority booking and premium cars at lower rates.

Ola recently said it plans to add 10,000 electric vehicles, mostly e-rikshaws to its platform over the next year. It is also looking at introducing electric cars.

Ola Cabs acquired Bangalore-based taxi service TaxiForSure for about $200 million in March 2015. To strengthen its shuttle bus service, Ola acquired Geotagg, a trip-planning applications company, for an undisclosed sum in November 2015. To diversify into food delivery, Ola acquired food delivery startup Foodpanda in December 2017. In April 2018, Ola acquired public transport ticketing app Ridlr (formerly Traffline).

Ola’s Financials

Ola Cabs makes money from subscriptions and by charging a commission of 20% on every booking. Its revenue was INR 1,286 crore ($178 million) in 2017, up 51% from INR 758 crore ($118 million) in FY 2016. Profit or loss numbers for 2017 were not disclosed. Losses had nearly tripled to Rs 2,313.7 crore ($359.5 million) in 2016 from INR 796 crore ($123.7 million) in 2015.

Ola Cabs has been venture funded with $3.3 billion in 16 rounds from investors including China Eurasian Economic Cooperation Fund, Sailing Capital, Temasek Holdings, RNT Capital, Tencent Holdings, Tekne Capital Management, DST Global, SoftBank Capital, Sequoia Capital, Steadview Capital, Tiger Global Management, Baillie Gifford, ABG Capital, Accel Partners, Anupam Mittal, Didi Chuxing, Falcon Capital, GIC, Kunal Bahl, Matrix Partners, and Mauritius Investments. Its last funding was in September 2018 when it had raised $50 million at a valuation of about $4.3 billion. In October 2017, it had raised $1.1 billion at a valuation of $3.5-$4 billion.

In June 2017, it raised $50 million at a valuation of an estimated $3.65 billion. An earlier round for $500 million held in November 2015 had valued it at $4.5 billion.

Ola continues to be the biggest player in the ride-hailing space with over 65%. However, it has not been an easy ride. It is plagued by strikes by its drivers for rate hikes and better incentives. The only saving grace is that Uber is equally troubled by driver strikes.

But other competitors are benefiting from strikes at Ola and Uber.

Meru Cabs, one of the first private radio taxi services in India which has over 20,000 cabs across 24 Indian cities, reported revenue of INR 322.64 crore ($45 million)in FY 16, up 90 times over the year. It had reported a profit in FY14 but incurred losses to the tune of INR 16.5 crore ($2.3 million) in FY16. Meru also raised $75 million in venture funding in two rounds in 2015 and 2016 from Brand Capital and True North.

It has become imperative for Ola to increase operational efficiency and reduce losses. But at the same time, it has to keep its driver partners happy or they will move to other competitors. Which way will Ola go from this crossroads?

What has been your experience with Ola? Have the frequent strikes broken your Ola habit or are you a loyal user?

More investigation and analysis of Unicorn companies can be found in my latest Entrepreneur Journeys book, Billion Dollar Unicorns. 

This segment is a part in the series : Billion Dollar Unicorns