Can Bhavish Aggarwal upend the electric two-wheeler market, which is now overwhelmingly in favour of scooters?
The Ludhiana-born engineer is among the youngest entrepreneurs on TIME's 100 most influential people.
Ola founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Bhavish Aggarwal will step back from day-to-day operations to focus more on engineering functions, team building, and products, apart from focusing on long-term strategic projects, such as two-wheelers, cars, and innovations in quick commerce and international expansion. "I'll be spending more time with all engineering functions, team building, and on products," said Aggarwal in an internal note, adding, "I'll also be increasing my focus on our longer-term strategic projects, including new two-wheeler products, our car project, innovations in quick commerce, electrifying ride-hailing, our cell research and development (R&D), international expansion, building our Pune technology (tech) centre, and Futurefoundry UK." To drive scale, speed, and quality, Aggarwal said he is expanding Ola Group's chief financial officer (CFO) G R Arun Kumar's role to help him steer 'day-to-day operations' across the group.
A case has been registered against the founder of Ola Electric and other senior officials following the suicide of an engineer who accused them of harassment and non-payment of dues.
Ola Electric on Thursday said it has forayed into the country's Rs 1 lakh crore battery energy storage systems market, which is projected to grow to over Rs 3 lakh crore by 2030.
Driven by improved customer experience, Ola Electric is witnessing "clear outcomes" in market share from its focused service transformation programme, the company said, as it registered 9,020 units in December, lifting its month-on-month share to 9.3 per cent from 7.2 per cent in November.
Driven by improved customer experience, Ola Electric is witnessing "clear outcomes" in market share from its focused service transformation programme, the company said, as it registered 9,020 units in December, lifting its month-on-month share to 9.3 per cent from 7.2 per cent in November.
Ola Electric on Thursday said its automobile business turned profitable in the quarter ended September 2025 with pre-tax earnings growing by 0.3 per cent against a contraction of 5.3 per cent in the preceding three months.
Ola Electric could gain market share in the near term with relatively less disruption expected due to rare earth magnets shortage, according to a report by Goldman Sachs. The company has successfully developed heavy rare earths (HRE) free motors which are scheduled for production deployment in Q3 FY26.
Ola Founder Bhavish Aggarwal on Wednesday said electric scooter based on Gen 3 platform will be unveiled later this week. "Bringing the 'Next Level' with @OlaElectric Gen 3 scooters! We've significantly surpassed Gen 2 products in every way -- much higher performance, more features, great design! And a surprise to change the industry all over again," he stated on X.
The Softbank-backed company has set a price band of Rs 72 to Rs 76 per share for the maiden share sale and is expected to test the appetite for new-age loss-making companies.
Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and chief executive officer of Ola, is encouraging developers to switch from Google Maps to Ola Maps. Ola is offering developers a year of free access to Ola Maps on the company's Krutrim Cloud and over Rs 100 crore in free credits. This initiative comes after Ola replaced Google Maps with its own Ola Maps, leading to annual savings of around Rs 100 crore.
Ola Electric on Friday said it has launched eight scooter models under the S1 brand, developed on its Gen 3 platform, priced between Rs 79,999 and Rs 1,69,999. The company said it will continue to sell retail its Gen 2 scooters along with the latest Gen 3 S1 scooters.
Ola Electric Mobility Ltd on Friday said ministries of heavy industries, and road transport and highways have sought information from the company over gap in vehicle registrations as per the Vahan portal and sales as per the firm's regulatory filing. Besides, the ministries have also sought clarification on reports "regarding non-compliance to the requirement of trade certificates", Ola Electric Mobility said in a regulatory filing.
Market regulator Sebi has warned Ola Electric Mobility for violating listing norms by sharing store expansion plans on social media before informing stock exchanges, according to a regulatory filing by the company. In a letter to the company by Sebi, shared on BSE by Ola Electric Mobility, the market regulator took exception to the dissemination of information regarding plans for a four-fold expansion of the company-owned store network by December 20, 2024.
Startups that became unicorns in 2024 took an average of nine years and six months to reach $1 billion valuation, reflecting the impact of a prolonged funding squeeze from PE/VC firms over the past few years.
Why has the shift from ICE to electric slowed down despite initial enthusiasm?
Clearly, some of the bullishness of the early days has gone missing. Ola's market share is slipping amid rising competition from incumbents like Bajaj Auto and TVS.
Ola Electric is conducting an restructuring exercise which is expected to affect over 500 employees across various roles within the organisation, according to sources. This would be over 12 per cent of staff at the firm which has about 4,000 people. "This is a restructuring exercise ongoing for the last few months and is expected to conclude by next month," said a person familiar with the development.
Ola Electric, the SoftBank-backed electric vehicle (EV) maker, is likely to pursue a valuation of approximately $4.5 billion in its upcoming initial public offering (IPO), marking about 18 per cent decrease from its last funding round valuation of around $5.5 billion, according to industry sources. The Bhavish Aggarwal-founded firm aims to file for the IPO by next month, according to people familiar with the matter. "The strategy is to price the IPO attractively for investors, fostering long-term growth and wealth creation," said a source.
Ola Electric will roll out its complete offering of electric scooters and motorcycles in each segment of the market - premium, mass premium, and economical - in the next 12 months in a bid to push for a near-full conversion of the two-wheeler market to electric in three years. According to Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Ola Electric, "ICE (internal combustion engine) products will fall off a cliff." He also says the company is aiming to become profitable next year.
Bajaj Auto has become the top player in India's electric vehicle market by monthly volumes, across all categories, with over 25,000 sales and registrations in September. This comes on the back of a big push in expanding distribution by the company and steady demand of electric three-wheelers. In September, the company - according to the latest Vahan data - recorded sales of 17,570 electric two-wheelers, 4,575 three-wheelers, and 3,000 Yulu low-speed electric bikes (based on company sales numbers), which do not require a licence and are not registered on Vahan.
Players like Ola Electric, Ather Energy, Kinetic Green and BGauss are introducing premium services and infrastructure enhancements.
'Son believes India has a significant opportunity in chip design, especially in creating IP that will be uniquely Indian.'
From premium electric motorcycles to mass-market scooters, manufacturers are rapidly expanding their portfolios to capture a larger share of the booming market.
Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra has once again found himself at the center of a controversy, this time for his comments about Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. Kamra has been a controversial figure for years, with his comedy often targeting politicians and other public figures. This latest incident has led to a backlash from Shinde's supporters, who have vandalized the venue of Kamra's show. Kamra has a history of making controversial remarks, including heckling a TV anchor on a flight and making comments about the judiciary.
The Rs 6,145-crore initial public offer of electric two-wheeler company Ola Electric Mobility got fully subscribed on the second day of bidding on Monday, driven by demand from retail investors and non-institutional investors. The initial share sale received bids for 49,43,63,610 shares against 46,51,59,451 shares on offer, translating into 1.06 times subscription, according to the NSE data.
With India's gig economy projected to double in size, reaching over 10 million workers in the coming years, Ola Electric unveiled its new line of budget-friendly e-scooters, starting at under Rs 40,000. The market responded positively, with Ola Electric's stock rising by 5.67 per cent, closing at Rs 73.47 on the BSE.
Focus on the quality of work and not on the quantity, as one can change the world in 10 hours, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra said on Saturday, joining the debate on a 90-hour work week.
Mobility company Ola's chief financial officer Swayam Saurabh and chief operating officer Gaurav Porwal are leaving the company. These developments come at a time when the SoftBank-backed company's core ride-hailing unit is planning to go public and for which it raised $500 million from Warburg Pincus and Temasek in July this year. These investment firms had partnered with the company founder Bhavish Aggarwal for this round.
In March 2021, Ola Electric founder Bhavish Aggarwal was seen surveying an empty 500-acre land surrounded by shoe factories, temples, bakery shops, coconut trees and dusty roads in Pochampalli town of Krishnagiri district, Tamil Nadu. Many excavators and workers were busy at the construction site to build the Ola Futurefactory for electric vehicles.
Electric two-wheeler company Ola Electric Mobility will float its initial public offering (IPO) on August 2, and a significant part of the proceeds will be used for capacity expansion of its cell manufacturing plant and revving up R&D. The initial share sale will conclude on August 6, and the bidding for anchor investors will open for a day on August 1, according to the red herring prospectus (RHP).
Venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) funding for Indian startups in the artificial intelligence sector has seen a dramatic decrease with deal sizes shrinking, notwithstanding the buzz around the country's potential as a major AI hub. Data from research agency Traxcn, which tracks PE/VC investments, shows that total funding for AI startups in India, which started with a bang in 2022 at $599 million, dropped sharply in 2023 to $168.4 million - a decrease of over 71 per cent.
Ola Electric will miss its target to fully utilise installed production capacity in next six to eight months and will achieve only 50 per cent of it by November 2023, founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal said on Friday. At the time of launch of the new S1 Air electric scooter ahead of Diwali last month, he had said the company was already producing more than 1,000 a day at its 'future factory' and would be scaling it up significantly beyond that.
The BSA Gold Star is launched....Ola Enters e-motorbikes Biz... Bajaj, TVS To Enter e2Ws Market...
Under regulatory scanner, Bengaluru-based Ola Electric has witnessed an uptick in its sales after facing a decline during the last few months. The company's daily average sales rose to 1,154 units in October, according to Vahan data from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). With sales reaching 17,315 units between October 1 and October 15, the company has also boosted its market share to 34 per cent, up from 27 per cent in September, in the electric two-wheeler (e2W) segment.
Unprecedented bribery charges, farewells, separation, failed union, monumental mergers and record-breaking IPOs, along with a healthy dose of online happenings in the form of spat and lessons in customer care, corporate India saw it all in 2024.
Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy stirred a storm on X when he said young people should work 70 hours a week to level up the country's productivity. In a conversation with former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai in the inaugural episode of 3one4 Capital's podcast 'The Record,' Murthy said that youngsters should put extra hours at work to compete with leading economies. "India's work productivity is one of the lowest in the world. Unless we improve our work productivity...we will not be able to compete with those countries that have made tremendous progress," he said, comparing India with China, Japan and Germany.
IPO-bound mobility platform Ola, said it has successfully raised $500 million via a Term Loan B (TLB) from marquee international institutional investors. This term loan has no impact on the valuation of Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola. The Bengaluru-based firm recently raised $139 million. This is part of a $1 billion funding round for which the company is in talks with investors, increasing its valuation to about $7.5 billion, according to the sources.
The Indian entrepreneurship success story will soon see one more company debuting on the public markets. Ola Electric, the electric vehicle (EV) company, has become the first such firm that has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India for its initial public offering (IPO). This is a fresh issue of equity shares of up to Rs 5,500 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of more than 95 million equity shares at a face value of Rs 10.
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