Your next ride via the Ola app in an auto rickshaw could be cashless.
The launch of a range of electric motorbikes (e-bikes) by Bengaluru-based Ola Electric, a first for the company, has disconcerted the industry because the low price the firm claims to be offering has the potential to disrupt the market. On August 15, Ola unveiled its Roadster series e-bike with a starting-price at Rs 74,999. This new pricing undercuts the previous lowest price in the category, which was Rs 110,000.
India's 25 venture capital and private equity backed "new-age" companies, that listed between May 2020 and June 2025, reveals a sobering reality behind the hype: barely a third have delivered sustained outperformance against the market.
Ola Electric share price strategy: The meteoric rise of Ola Electric share price has left analysts and investors bewildered. Yet, they suggest investors hold on to the stock as it remains a pure "momentum" play. Since its listing on August 9, the stock has surged 92 per cent (till August 19) over its issue price of Rs 76, taking its market capitalisation to a little over Rs 63,000 crore.
Retail sales of electric passenger vehicles (ePVs) nearly doubled in July 2025, surging 93 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) to 15,528 units, even as overall passenger vehicle (PV) retail volumes declined marginally. In contrast, electric two-wheeler (e2W) sales dropped by 4.3 per cent to 102,973 units, according to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (Fada) data.
Consumer rights regulator CCPA has ordered a detailed probe into complaints related to alleged "deficiencies" in services and electric two-wheelers manufactured by Ola Electric. The Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) headed by Nidhi Khare has directed the Director General (Investigation), who is also head of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), to investigate this matter.
Among Sensex firms, Bharat Electronics, Eternal, Mahindra & Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Motors and Power Grid were the gainers. However, Adani Ports, ITC, UltraTech Cement and Titan were among the laggards.
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.
There are times when a customer books a cab and is charged for the ride, but the driver doesn't show up. It is one of the many hacks that cab drivers use.
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.
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.
Bike-taxi drivers are also left stranded as many depended on the service.
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).
Led by Ola Electric, which registered an industry record of 53,186 vehicles in March, electric two-wheeler (e2W) penetration hit a record at 8.91 per cent - the highest ever for a month (based on Vahan data).
Rising inflation and stagnant wages are forcing a number of salaried professionals to venture into the bike taxi service as part-time riders.
Ride-hailing company Ola Mobility CEO Hemant Bakshi has resigned from the company within four months of joining it, according to sources privy to the development. Sources also said that the company is planning to lay off 10-15 per cent employees.
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.
The government on Wednesday asked e-commerce platforms to conduct annual internal audits to make sure that they are not resorting to manipulative tactics to mislead consumers and prevent them from making right choices -- a technique commonly referred to as dark pattern -- and submit reports to the Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA). It comes just a week after Uber was issued a notice by the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) over its "advance tip" feature.
Ola Credit will give customers 7 days of credit so they can keep booking Ola cabs without worrying about having sufficient cash
'Today, we have 2 million active drivers earning through our platform every month.'
With its foray into self-drive, Ola will go head-to-head with early entrants Zoomcar, Revv and a few other.
Japanese investment giant SoftBank is looking to partially exit from three startups which are aiming at an IPO next year - Ola Electric, Swiggy and First Cry. But its decision will depend on the size of the offer for sale pool in each of the companies. According to sources aware of the strategy, Softbank invested over $850 million collectively in these companies whose value conservatively would go up more than 4.3 times to around $3.7 billion, based on preliminary estimates of their projected valuation when they go public next year.
While mobility aggregators such as Rapido and Uber have welcomed the decision, gig workers associations and unions remain concerned.
There's a hint of new competition riding into a sector that has attracted attention for being in a duopoly-like situation. Rapido, a commute app known for its budget-friendly bike-taxi services, on Tuesday announced its entry into the cab market, which is currently dominated by marquee brands Uber and Ola. Rapido's cab foray will be enabled by a software as a service (SaaS)-based platform.
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.
Layoffs, corporate restructuring, governance and most importantly profitability: The 14 Indian startups that plan IPOs this year are pulling out all the stops to ensure successful market debuts.
'The government is actively engaging with EU to ensure that concerns of Indian companies and hard-to-abate sectors are adequately addressed under CBAM'
The development comes amid Japan's SoftBank booking an investment loss of 39.28 billion yen (USD 350 million) on its investments in India, including those in Ola and e-commerce company Snapdeal.
After the success of bringing businesses to WhatsApp, Meta - its parent - is now introducing ads and subscriptions to Status and Channels under the Updates tab of the messaging app, the company said on Monday. This move will further push its monetisation efforts on WhatsApp.
In the hottest sector of AI, where most global VC funding is going currently, the country's record has not been anything to write home about.
Start-ups don't care that mad-money funding comes to a hard stop after an IPO, observes Debashis Basu. As a listed entity, corporate actions have to take the interests of all shareholders, especially minority shareholders, into account. So far, we are not seeing any sign of it, observes Debashis Basu.
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Ola's rival Uber is trying to set up a local engineering centre in Bengaluru.
Around 500 people have signed up on Ola's platform for the Bike Taxis service.
Ola Electric's initial public offering (IPO), of Rs 5,500 crore, is essentially aimed at ensuring the company maintain its top position in the electric two-wheeler segment, with incumbent players TVS and Bajaj Auto giving a fight to the number one player in market share. Most experts and competitors say the amount being raised is in line with the investment required to expand the electric-vehicle (EV) business. There are two discernible trends in the competitive electric two-wheeler market.
More than 30 technology startups, collectively valued at $100 billion, are poised to go public by 2027, signalling a potential rebound in India's stock market activity, according to a report by investment bank The Rainmaker Group. Walmart-owned Flipkart, financial technology (fintech) leader PhonePe, SoftBank-backed Lenskart, Razorpay, Zetwerk, and Meesho are among the top companies preparing to go public in India.
'Through volume numbers and unit sales one can see, we are not making a loss'
The two-wheeler giant had only 14 per cent of the electric two-wheeler market in May this year, but its 26.8 per cent in December
'Nobody wants to run an exploitation factory.'
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