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Ola Electricโ€™s CBO Ankush Aggarwal joins Ola Financial Services as CEO

EntrackrEntrackr ยท 1y ago
Ola Electricโ€™s CBO Ankush Aggarwal joins Ola Financial Services as CEO
Medial

ANI Technologies, the parent company of ride hailing company Ola, has appointed Ankush Aggarwal as the chief executive officer of Ola Financial Services. His appointment comes on the backdrop of resignation of Hemant Bakshi as CEO of the ride hailing business. Bakshi was leading the mobility business along with a focus on key businesses such as financial services, logistics, and e-commerce. As per an ET report, Ankush Aggarwal will be a part of the senior leadership of Ola Cabs. In March 2022, Ankush Aggarwal (brother of Olaโ€™s founder Bhavish Aggarwal) sold his startup Avail Finance to ANI Technologies for about $50 million in a share swap deal. After the deal, he joined Ola Electric, a separate company founded by Bhavish Aggawral, as the chief business officer (CBO). While Ola is yet to name the new chief executive of the ride hailing business, Bhavish Aggarwal will look after the day-to-day operations of the company. Entrackr has reached out to Ola for comment. Earlier this year, Ola announced that it had turned EBITDA profitable in FY23. During the period, its revenue jumped 42% to Rs 2,799 crore as compared to Rs 1,970 crore in FY22. The firm managed to cut down its losses by nearly 50% to Rs 772 crore during FY23 against Rs 1,522 crore in the previous year. Also Read: Startups rope in new CEOs amid cash crunch, layoffs, profitability and IPO plans Ola Money, which is operated by Ola Financial Services, recorded Rs 85.5 crore revenue with a loss of Rs 54.6 crore while the cab leasing firm Ola Fleet Technologiesโ€™ revenue stood at Rs 189.9 crore with Rs 387.6 crore loss in FY23. Last month, Ola announced that it is rolling back its services from international markets such as the UK, Australia and New Zealand. โ€‹โ€‹The move is likely due to its shift in attention towards launching an initial public offering. As per media reports, Ola is gearing up for the IPO and has finanlised book running lead managers for going public.

Vanguard values Ola at $1.25 Bn

EntrackrEntrackr ยท 6m ago
Vanguard values Ola at $1.25 Bn
Medial

US-based asset management company Vanguard has marked down Olaโ€™s valuation to $1.25 billion, according to a SEC filing in the US. This represents more than an 80% drop from its peak valuation of $7.3 billion in 2021. In February 2024, Vanguard had valued the Bhavish Aggarwal-led company at less than $2 billion ($1.88 billion) for the first time. However, it later revalued the company at around $2 billion in November last year. This development comes as Ola continues its push toward a public listing, even as it loses ground in the ride-hailing space (cabs, autos, and bikes). Rapido has emerged as the market leader, followed by Uber, with Ola now relegated to third place. In August last year, CEO Bhavish Aggarwal announced that Ola Cabs would be rebranded as Ola Consumer, consolidating its financial services, cloud kitchens, and electric logistics under one umbrella. Although Ola converted into a public entity in November 2024 and has been evaluating IPO options since November last year, it has yet to make concrete moves toward a listing. Analysts suggest that Ola is likely to delay its IPO plans by at least six months, citing unfavorable market conditionsโ€”especially in light of the declining market cap and share price of Ola Electric. During FY24, Olaโ€™s operating revenue declined by 5.5% to Rs 2,012 crore, down from Rs 2,128 crore in FY23. However, the company narrowed its losses significantly to Rs 10 crore in FY24, compared to Rs 623 crore in the previous fiscal year. The Bengaluru-based firm also turned EBITDA profitable in FY24. Meanwhile, its rival Rapido reached unicorn status last year after raising $200 million at a valuation of $1.1 billion. The Swiggy-backed company also surpassed Ola in terms of combined daily rides across bike taxis, autos, and cabs in Q2 FY25. Despite losing market share, Olaโ€™s ride-hailing business remained more than twice the size of Uberโ€™s and 2.5 times that of Rapido in terms of revenue. In FY24, Olaโ€™s ride-hailing income stood at Rs 1,761 crore, compared to Uberโ€™s Rs 807 crore from its mobility operations. Rapido reported Rs 648 crore in revenue for the same period, while managing to cut its losses by 45% to Rs 371 crore. While this valuation downgrade may not have a direct financial impact on Ola, it could weigh on internal moraleโ€”especially as the company weighs its public market debut.

Bhavish Aggarwal launches Krutrim AI Labs with Rs 2,000 Cr investment

EntrackrEntrackr ยท 10m ago
Bhavish Aggarwal launches Krutrim AI Labs with Rs 2,000 Cr investment
Medial

Bhavish Aggarwal launches Krutrim AI Labs with Rs 2,000 Cr investment Olaโ€™s founder and chief, Bhavish Aggarwal, has announced the launch of the Krutrim AI Labs to develop artificial intelligence specifically designed for India. As part of this initiative, he has committed an initial investment of Rs 2,000 crore, with a larger commitment of Rs 10,000 crore by next year. The funding will be used to establish the AI lab and develop advanced AI models tailored for Indian users. According to Aggarwal, Krutrim AI Lab will address challenges related to Indic languages, data scarcity, and cultural context. "While weโ€™ve been working on AI for a year, today weโ€™re releasing our work to the open-source community and also publishing a number of technical reports. Our focus is on developing AI for Indiaโ€”to improve AI for Indian languages, data scarcity, and cultural context," Aggarwal shared on X (formerly Twitter). As part of its open-source initiative, Krutrim is releasing multiple AI models, including Krutrim 2, an upgraded LLM; Chitrarth 1, a Vision Language Model; Dhwani 1, a Speech Language Model; Vyakhyarth 1, an Indic embedding model; and Krutrim Translate 1, a text-to-text translation model. Additionally, Krutrim has introduced BharatBench, a dedicated benchmark for evaluating Indic AI performance. Krutrim is also building Indiaโ€™s first GB200 AI supercomputer in partnership with NVIDIA. It is expected to be ready by March and aims to become Indiaโ€™s largest AI supercomputer by the end of the year. Aggarwal emphasised that while Krutrim has grown quickly in just a year, India still has a long way to go in AI. By open-sourcing its models, the company hopes to encourage collaboration and help build a strong AI ecosystem in India.

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