Ride Hailing Company Ola Appoints Two New CFOs

Mobility company Ola Group has announced the appointment of two new Chief Financial Officers. The company announced Arun Kumar as the Chief Financial Officer of the parent company Ola Group and its electric scooter wing called Ola Electric, while Swayem Saurabh will take on the position of CFO at the company’s subsidiary that handles mobility, financial services, and food business.

Ola, founded in December 2010 by two IIT Bombay graduates, started as a cab-hailing service. The company started by narrowing the gap between commuters and drivers and has made hailing a cab in India a stress-free experience. The service works just like Bolt and Uber; Ola partners with drivers and car owners, and people can order cabs via its mobile app and get one in a short time. Ola is arguably the largest cab-hailing service in India. It has users in over 100 cities and employs about 1.5 million drivers across India, and as of 2014 had almost 60 percent of the market share in India. Since it started out in 2010, the company has expanded and launched its bike and auto booking service, a bicycle-sharing service called Ola Pedal. The company has also ventured into financial services and the food business.

The company also recently filled several positions across its business arms. Rakesh Bhardwaj was named as the company’s Chief Investment Officer, N.Balachander was named as Chief HR Officer for Ola Electric. Wayne Burgess and YS Kim were named as Head of Design and Global Sales Head for Ola Electric respectively.

“Arun and Swayam bring deep financial expertise across large and complex global organizations and multiple industries including minerals, construction, and FMCG, amongst others. I look forward to working with them to deliver our growth ambitions while maximizing capital efficiency”, Bhavish Aggarwal; the CEO of Ola Group said while commenting on the recent appointments.

Ola Group has had an incredible journey since it started in 2010. In 2011, the company raised $500,000 from Kunal Bahl and other investors. It went on to raise $5 million from Tiger Global Management in 2012., and $20 million from Matrix Partners and Tiger Global Management. In 2015, the startup attained unicorn status after raising over $900 million from various investors in Series E and F funding rounds. That same year, it acquired TaxiForSure.

In 2018, the startup expanded to Australia after raising over $250 million in Series I funding round. The company also expanded its can service to London in 2019.