On Thursday, Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal stated that India must establish its future on its own terms in order to dominate the technologies of the future, specifically mentioning artificial intelligence (AI).
At a press conference in Hosur, where new products were unveiled by Ola’s electric vehicle, cab, and artificial intelligence divisions, he predicted that the company would “simply end up becoming monthly active user farms for global companies” if current trends carry on.
Ola will soon open a battery manufacturing facility in Hosur in addition to its electric vehicle (EV) factory.
Krutrim, an artificial intelligence division of the Bengaluru-based business, plans to produce India’s first AI silicon chip by the year 2026. The likes of Intel, Nvidia, and AMD will be up against Ola if it succeeds. Not only that, but Amazon, Meta, Google, and Apple are all developing their own artificial intelligence CPUs.
Joining Hands with Global Majors
In order to construct the chips, Ola established strategic alliances with multinational powerhouses including ARM, a chip design firm, and Untether AI, an artificial intelligence firm based in Canada. A video message was played at the Hosur ceremony by ARM CEO Rene Haas, who expressed his joy at the partnership with Ola Krutrim.
The Bodhi AI chip, the Sarv general-purpose CPU, and the Ojas edge-computing CPU are all part of Krutrim’s first family of semiconductors. The creation of AI systems that are both quicker and more efficient is anticipated to be made possible by the AI chip.
As an additional resource for the developer community, Krutrim has introduced Krutrim Cloud, which offers general-purpose and AI capabilities along with a variety of AI services designed specifically for product development. Until Diwali, it has offered these data centre services—worth INR 100 crore—to developers and businesses at no cost.
Transferring the Name and Expanding Ola Cabs
Ola Consumer is the new name for Aggarwal’s initial ride-sharing company, Ola Cabs. Further cities will be added to the business’s reach.
For all ONDC vendors, including startups and SMEs, Ola Consumer is offering a free year of Krutrim Cloud. In addition, Krutrim Cloud will provide direct-to-consumer brands with free access for a year.
In a test program that ended this year, Ola Food & Grocery on ONDC exceeded 40,000 orders daily in Bengaluru.
A completely automated dark store the size of a shipping container was on display, and the business intends to produce these at large. According to Aggarwal, the containers have the capacity to process 7–10,000 orders every day. Any online store can utilise this for inventory management and shipping purposes. Bombay Shaving firm, ITC, and Marico are all partners in this, according to the firm.
These ready-made dark shopfronts could find a lot of success in India’s booming e-commerce market.
A unicorn is a privately held startup with a valuation of $1 billion or above. This financial milestone raises these companies in the eyes of investors, entrepreneurs, and the general public, as only a few companies achieve such high valuations before going public or being acquired. Unicorns have a remarkable ability to grow rapidly and exponentially. Their growth is not gradual; instead, it follows an aggressive and fast path that allows them to increase their market share quickly.
Innovation is at the heart of unicorn enterprises. They are renowned for bringing innovative and game-changing concepts to their specialized fields, frequently utilizing state-of-the-art technology and breaking new ground in business structures.
There are more than 1,000 unicorn companies in the world. As of January 2024, India has 111 unicorn startups, making it the world’s fastest-growing startup ecosystem.
Starting your own business is a difficult road full of obstacles and uncertainties. However, even in this turbulent environment, some exceptional people repeatedly overcome obstacles. In the ever-changing world of business innovation, these trailblazers stand out as the creators of not one but several unicorn enterprises. Their experiences serve as the perfect example of determination, intelligence, and an unmatched ability to spot possibilities amid chaos.
Co-founder and CEO of OLA Cabs, Founder of OLA Electric
Bhavish Aggarwal
Bhavish Aggarwal was born in Ludhiana, Punjab, on August 28, 1985. He is an Indian businessman who founded Ola Electric and co-founded Ola Cabs. Aggarwal, an IIT Mumbai alumnus, started his professional career with Microsoft, where he worked for two years, filed two patent applications, and published three articles in international journals.
In December 2010, he and a fellow student, Ankit Bhati, created the ridesharing business Ola Cabs, an ANI Technologies division. Ola achieved its first significant milestone in July 2014, reaching 10,000 rides per day. As the CEO of Ola Cabs, he introduced several divisions, including mobile payments and wallet services through OlaMoney and Ola Fleet.
In December 2017, Ola Cabs purchased Foodpanda‘s Indian business, thereby breaking into the food delivery market. In April 2022, he resigned as CEO of Ola Cabs to concentrate on Ola Electric. Under ANI Technologies, Bhavish Aggarwal founded Ola Electric on May 26, 2017. He initiated a trial project in Nagpur, Maharashtra, by erecting charging stations throughout the city and acquiring electric vehicles from manufacturers, including electric buses, electric rickshaws, and electric cars.
PGDM (IIM Lucknow) B.Tech (IIT Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi)
Position
MD & CEO at Xpressbees, Co-founder & COO at FirstCry
Amitava Saha
Amitava Saha is the co-founder and chief operating officer of FirstCry and the CEO of Xpressbees. Saha’s groundbreaking projects have continually disrupted sectors and transformed market landscapes. His ability to navigate unfamiliar territory with strategic insight and unshakable persistence has enabled him to establish not one but several unicorn enterprises. After completing his BTech at IIT Varanasi, he graduated with a PGDM from IIM Lucknow. Before launching Xpressbees alongside Supam Maheshwari, Amitava had positions as a Business Development Manager at Aricent, Senior Officer at Tata Steel, and Senior Business Development Executive at NIIT Technologies.
Following his decision to start FirstCry, where he held the positions of COO and co-founder, Amitava Saha went on to found Xpressbees. He has more than 17 years of expertise in sales and operations.
With an excellent nationwide supply chain management network, Xpressbees is India’s top logistics service provider. FirstCry is an online and offline business that offers a large selection of goods for mothers, infants, and children. The firm originated out of a desire to address the issue of millions of Indian parents lacking access to the top brands and baby care items for their children.
Supam Maheshwari
Name
Supam Maheshwari
Born
1974
Education
PGDM (IIM Ahmedabad), Delhi College of Engineering
Position
Co-founder & CEO at FirstCry, Co-founder of Xpressbees
Supam Maheshwari
Supam Maheshwari is the CEO of FirstCry, a baby care company headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra, India. Maheshwari completed his formal education at Apeejay School. He graduated from Delhi College of Engineering with a Mechanical Engineering degree. He later attended IIM-Ahmedabad to pursue a PGDM. After completing his MBA, he conceptualized and developed Brainvisa Technologies, which he co-founded and oversaw as CEO until 2009. He is a first-generation businessman with an astute business sense.
Supam Maheshwari was inspired to start FirstCry by his own experiences as a father looking for high-quality baby care goods for his child. He is an excellent leader and is well-known for his leadership abilities. Supam is also a co-founder of the logistics service company Xpressbees.
Naveen Tewari
Name
Naveen Tewari
Born
14 December 1977
Education
MBA (Harvard Business School)
Position
Founder & CEO at InMobi Group
Naveen Tewari
Naveen Tewari, founder and CEO of InMobi, was born and raised in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, in a family of academics. After working for McKinsey for three years as a consultant, Naveen graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School. While at HBS, he started and led the India Schoolhouse Fund, a nonprofit in the United States that sponsors and establishes schools in rural India.
He dabbled in several ventures for a few years, although he could have been more successful. This included the startup and venture capital worlds. Tewari identified a market need as the mobile internet was on its way to revolution. He realized a platform was required to distribute customized advertisements on mobile devices. He launched InMobi in 2008. The ad tech business became the first unicorn in India in just three years. Tewari’s impact goes beyond the business sector. He strongly supports entrepreneurship and innovation, actively mentoring new firms and funding programs that strengthen the Indian IT sector.
Asish Mohapatra
Name
Asish Mohapatra
Born
1980
Education
PGP-MBA (ISB Hyderabad), IIT (Kharagpur)
Position
CEO of OFB Tech Pvt. Ltd
Asish Mohapatra
Asish Mohapatra is an Indian entrepreneur who has co-founded two unicorn firms in India. After obtaining his mechanical engineering degree from IIT-Kharagpur and his MBA from the Indian School of Business (ISB), he worked for Matrix Partners, a venture capital fund, for over four years.
Before he was able to launch his business, the IIT Kharagpur graduate was turned down a shocking 73 times. After receiving backing from the Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp., Asish’s business became a unicorn in July 2021. It was valued at approximately $1.5 billion when it concluded a $160 million investment round.
In 2016, Asish, his wife, and a few other dedicated members of their team founded Oxyzo, an offshoot of Asish’s previous firm that provides SMEs with purchase finance and became a unicorn a year later, in 2022. The company stated that Oxyzo presently has 2000+ crores in AUM, is servicing more than 3,000 SMEs throughout India, and disburses more than 4,000 crores annually.
Asish Mohapatra’s journey demonstrates the value of patience, intelligent thought, and an in-depth comprehension of market needs. His initiatives not only help contribute to the Indian Economy but also motivate new entrepreneurs to pursue their objectives despite all obstacles.
Top 10 Indian Profitable Unicorns
Ruchi Kalra
Name
Ruchi Kalra
Born
1983
Education
Indian School of Business (Hyderabad), IIT (Delhi)
Position
Co-founder and CFO of OFB Tech Pvt. Ltd, Co-founder of Oxyzo Financial Services Limited
Ruchi Kalra
Indian businesswoman Ruchi Kalra is the co-founder of the unicorn companies OfBusiness and Oxyzo Financial Services. Ruchi completed her MBA at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, after earning her BTech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi, and she began working as a senior business analyst at Evalueserve.
She quit her job at McKinsey in 2016 to launch her firm, OfBusiness, in the untested B2B market with her husband and six other partners. In 2017, her spouse and three other team members picked up an offshoot of their first firm. Oxyzo provides purchase finance to small and medium businesses, giving out cash-flow-based loans to aid SMEs who struggle to access working capital by employing technology that crunches data for them.
Sandeep Aggarwal
Name
Sandeep Aggarwal
Born
–
Education
MBA (Washington University in St. Louis)
Position
Founder of Droom Technologies, Shopclues
Sandeep Aggarwal
Sandeep Aggarwal is an Indian entrepreneur, angel investor, and the current CEO of Droom Technology Pvt Ltd. He was a Wall Street research analyst for fourteen years before starting his entrepreneurial journey. He was the top-ranked research analyst and worked for Collins Stewart, Oppenheimer, and Citigroup.
Sandeep established two startups: Shopclues, an online managed marketplace, in 2010, and Droom, an online vehicle marketplace, in 2014. He raised 16 million dollars in just a year. He raised 90 million dollars in multiple rounds in the following three years. Sandeep possesses a US patent, an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis, and all the qualities that make an entrepreneur successful: a combination of knowledge, creativity, and willpower. He also launched the Sandeep Aggarwal Foundation, which addresses India’s development concerns. The charity supports and uplifts different sectors of society through partnerships with groups like the Umeed charity and Zoe Mission.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Name
Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Born
7 June 1978
Education
B.Tech from Delhi College of Engineering
Position
Founder & CEO of One97 and Paytm
Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Vijay Shekhar Sharma was born on June 7, 1978, in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, and completed his B.Tech from Delhi College of Engineering. He is a technology entrepreneur and multimillionaire business magnate. He founded One97 Communications in 2000, providing mobile users with news, jokes, ringtones, cricket scores, and exam results, among other material. One97 Communications Limited is the parent business of Paytm, Sharma’s digital payment and financial services company founded in 2010. Paytm successfully raised $2.5 billion at a $19 billion valuation when it went public in November 2021, making it the largest IPO in India.
In 2018, Sharma created a stir in the financial world when he convinced Berkshire Hathaway, owned by Warren Buffett, to invest $300 million in Paytm. Along with the Paytm Payments Bank, he founded the e-commerce company Paytm Mall. His commitment to innovation illustrates how technology can spur economic growth and demonstrates the transformative power of entrepreneurship.
In conclusion, this article looks into a handful of visionary founders who have not only transformed industries but also redefined our perception of entrepreneurship. Their ability to create, execute, and scale many billion-dollar companies demonstrates their impressive vision and passion to make the dream a reality.
FAQs
What is a unicorn startup?
A unicorn is a privately held startup with a valuation of $1 billion or above.This financial milestone raises these companies in the eyes of investors, entrepreneurs, and the general public, as only a few companies achieve such high valuations before going public or being acquired.
Who is Naveen Tewari?
Naveen Tewari is the founder and CEO of InMobi and has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
How many unicorn companies are there in the world?
There are more than 1,000 unicorn companies in the world. As of January 2024, India has 111 unicorn startups, making it the world’s fastest-growing startup ecosystem.
The world is evolving at a fast pace, right from climate change to pollution and everything in between — things are moving fast towards a more sustainable and economical future that is built upon the grounds of frugal innovation and so is India’s push towards sustainable use of resources and development.
The EV industry is on the verge of major leaps forward and this is when Ola & Bounce, two of the promising names in the sector are up for a ‘neck-to-neck’ tussle to the top. But who would actually be able to have the upper hand in building the future of automotive? Let’s find out.
Ola Electric — The Founder’s Ambitious Dream Ft. Mark Zuckerberg
No click baits. Bhavish Aggarwal & Mark Zuckerberg may be the two immensely popular CEOs with completely different products in two distant time zones, but they still have a striking similarity i.e., putting in their everything for a vision they have for themselves and the company.
What Mark Zuckerberg is doing with Meta is something that all of us already know, and Bhavish too — seems to be in that zone, where he thinks and believes that Ola’s future lies in the automotive sector and that is what the company wants to be known for, and not just another cab-hailing company.
In fact, when Ola Electric began in 2019 — many perceived it as a side gig for the cab-hailing unicorn, but the recent developments have pivoted Ola Electric as Ola’s flagship product.
From Urban Mobility to Everything Electric: Decoding the Functioning of Ola and the EV Dream
Ola Electric Tweet
Ola, which was among the first movers to launch last-mile mobility solutions in the country, grabbed eyeballs for all the right reasons. A track record where they were able to keep Uber on check to establish a duopoly in the last mile mobility landscape.
Thus, it was no surprise when the company announced its plans to expand into other verticals, but things changed. Out of all the categories, Bhavish and team vesting into the EV sector and that too with an in-house production unit came as a surprise to many.
But then, the reveal and the marketing on top of it successfully created that much-needed buzz in the automotive industry and among EV enthusiasts, who were eagerly waiting to discover what lay ahead.
Ola launched the S1 and the S1 Pro — two of their flagship electric two-wheelers that could cover the maximum distance of 180+ km on a single charge, a debatable claim that felt hard to achieve in real life. They were priced at a premium, significantly more than what their competition was charging for their EVs.
Ola was clear about its stance, and that was to position its offerings on the basis of quality and not price. With an exclusive invite-only system, Ola aimed at gaining enough momentum and buzz before a full-fledged launch.
However, the move didn’t reap enough rewards for the aggregator and it was more of a hit-and-miss. What followed was a pivot in the way the company went about its marketing endeavors. Ola went in with the pre-booking strategy, where users could book the vehicles for a token amount of ₹499, paying ₹20,000 on confirmation and the remaining at the time of delivery.
The small token for pre-booking went well with the customers, as they were a bit overwhelmed with the considerable price tag for the vehicle, despite all the features it comes with.
Reduce the premium price tag, that Ola deemed as ‘affordable’ and the company had cracked the code for a winning product that could redefine the company mission and scale in the times to come.
However, as we already mentioned — the high penetrating price was going to be an issue not because the price was too high — but because of the skeptical nature of the average Indian customer.
The users have expressed concerns about the EV industry overall, with a question mark upon the ability of EV manufacturers to get it right with their money and adhere to the safety norms.
Enters Bounce — A Fresh Twist in the EV Saga
First things first. Bounce was meant to be taken seriously, not because of the product but its sheer habit of solving complex problems differently, simplifying them for the end user.
Bounce started off as a bike sharing and self ‘PuDro’ mobility company Is known for this same appetite to solve mobility once and for all, by giving users the leverage to pick up and drop off their vehicle at the nearest bounce dockyards, at their own convenience.
The team and the idea of ‘Bounce’ were already bagging positive reception and that is when the company announced its focus on EVs and teased its first entry-level vehicle ‘Infinity’ for the daily commuter.
When a company that scaled to 100000 rides per day by just focusing on a couple of cities, announces something — we tend to get curious. Isn’t it? This was no different. Bounce’s announcement of the EV made one thing clear i.e V. Hallekere and the team have something cooking in their heads and the R & D labs.
Give Me the Liberty, and Take My Money — Understanding Bounce’s Strategy and the Indian Consumer
Bounce Battery Swapping Strategy
The founders were aware that they were competing with someone like Ola and Ather who have the luxury of a vast distribution network. Competing with them on the distribution front may not be a good idea and Bounce’s pricing for their entry-level scooter further justified their understanding of the Indian market.
Bounce’s entry-level scooter which is available at a price of ₹36,000 without the battery (apple folks crying in the corner) is about giving the liberty back to the customer, by giving them the option to pick what they want.
Bounce’s swappable battery feature across the network made the cost of owning a two-wheeler EV significantly cheaper, and the Bengaluru-based company surely deserves some brownie points for the move.
“The public transport in India is not like it is across the globe. For instance, there are 6,000 buses for over three million people in Bengaluru, alone. Public transport was thus overcrowded, and the number of people dependent on it was high. The biggest question is how you get these people to move,” Bounce’s Vivekananda H, Co-founder and CEO, tells YourStory.
The Pain — The One Who Solves It Faster, Wins
EV acceptance in India can’t be just dependent upon one or two companies. Rather, it has to be a combination of various factors, permutations, and combinations — and a lot of that has to do with the quality of the product and the price point.
For Ola, the pre-orders became a curse as they have failed to deliver upon orders and promised features, something that they have assured to fix in future updates.
The fire outbreaks in the vehicles, poorly built, and lack of safety — a lot of which is being deemed as the result of rushed manufacturing and cost cutting, can become deal breakers for customers who are looking to switch to a reliable EV.
Ola Fire Incidents
On the other hand, pricing and delivery are some of the major pain points that will determine the potential winner in the long run — as the price, distribution, and infrastructure still continue to be the biggest pain points when consumers look to switch to a new piece of technology.
Where Ola sells the EVs through its own app, Bounce has tied up with the homegrown marketplace, Flipkart to sell its EVs and make them accessible to customers. With the rise in fuel costs, impending recession, layoffs, and escalating inflation — affordability has become the need of the hour for customers.
However, this has also created chaos among the EV and OEM manufacturers as the ‘risk’ involved with the utility of a technology or an EV-like industry, await the tests of time and it is not something that the average Indian customer will be assured about, from day 01.
How companies can actually win it, is via a systematic funnel right from marketing to after-sales support. When customers switch to something new, they aren’t buying the product or the functionality — they are buying the hope and the change that it promises.
The graph shows the sales volume of electric two wheelers for the fiscal year 2016-2021
Conclusion
As they say, never judge the conclusion by the beginning — and rightly so, we feel that it is too early to decide upon a winner in the vastly interesting and highly competitive urban mobility landscape.
Companies like Ather, Bounce & Ola are constantly pushing their limits and redefining the way India perceives EVs, but then it is too early to say anything. When you take that giant leap forward, there are chances that you will stumble here and there, and you may fall too — but that is what startups are all about.
They’re not afraid to fall because they are not afraid to fail and that is what makes all the difference. Ola and Bounce are here to stay, but who’ll stay relevant in the long run? Well, that is the story for another ‘What if’!
FAQs
Who is the CEO of the Bounce?
Vivekananda Hallekere is the CEO of Bounce.
Which is the best EV scooter?
Some of the best EV scooters are Nami Burn-E 2 Max Electric Scooter, Dualtron Thunder Best Premium Electric Scooter, Kaabo Mantis Pro Best Electric Scooter, etc.
Do Bounce electric needs a license?
As per ARAI, any electric bike traveling at more than 25 kmph with motor power exceeding 250W needs a license for its use. And under the same criteria, Bounce electric also requires a license as it can travel much faster than 25 kmph.
Is Bounce an Indian company?
Yes, Bounce is an Indian company based in Bangalore, Karnataka.
Ankit Bhati is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Ola Cabs. He founded Ola with his companion Bhavish Aggarwal in 2010. He is also the Co-founder of ANI Technologies. Speculations arose that Ankit Bhati distanced himself from the ridesharing company last year owing to some serious conflicts between him and the founder of the company, Bhavish Aggarwal. Nonetheless, his contribution to the company is way more than such conjectures. So, let us know more about him in the article ahead.
Ankit Bhati was born in the year 1987 in Jodhpur, India. He currently resides in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. He is considered an introvert who spends his time coding while sitting in a corner. He likes to spend his spare time playing video games with his friends. Ankit Bhati is active on social media platforms including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
During his academic career, he was not interested in extracurricular activities rather he was more interested in computers. Ankit used to spend most of his time at the computer center. Bhati was less of a guy who would hop to the basketball court in his leisure but more of one who would sit in front of a computer. Ankit also became the administrator in the computer center he mostly used to hang out. Along with diving deep into video games, Ankit also loved to build websites and worked on freelance projects to make money during his college days.
Apart from computers, he has a great interest in cycling and adventure trips that he took where he also tagged his friends along. The idea of building a trip website (Olatrips.com) was initially out of his interest in adventure trips.
“It always is about being able to simplify things,” says Ankit, which is what technology is credited with. Therefore, Bhati stayed confident with their idea of OLA cabs because that also was about simplifying the experience for the customers and the driver-partners.
Ankit Bhati – Education
In 2004, Ankit Bhati took admission to the Indian Institue of Technology, Bombay for a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering. He knew that the only field where he can grow heights is computer programming and technology. He later got enrolled for M.Tech in CAD and automation and completed his Master’s in 2010. During his college days, he also worked on freelance projects in building websites to make money. After completing his higher studies in Mumbai, Ankit Bhati founded ANI Technologies in Bangalore, Karnataka. He is known to keep a low profile image as he is hardly seen on any event or product launches.
Ankit Bhati started working on several freelance projects in 2009. Bhati contributed to the growth of several startups like Wilcom, Make sense, QED42, and more. It was only in April 2021 that Bhati as a Venture Catalyst has funded a Noida-based Edtech startup – Qin1.
He was highly motivated to start his own company and give up on his authoritative professional life. He further moved on with Ola Cabs journey in November 2010.
Ankit Bhati is a computer programmer and contributed to the Ground Transportation industry. He has 6,231 colleagues in 633 companies situated in 59 countries. Moreover, 1,722 executive movements have been recorded in the last year.
Ankit Bhati, Co-founder and former CTO of OLA, has launched a new startup, as per reports dated January 7, 2022. The startup that goes by the name Amnic is designed to operate as a SaaS startup, co-founded by Nimish Joshi and Satya Nagarajan. Both of the co-founders were Ola executives and held the posts of VP and Head of Strategy and Business Development, and VP and Head of Software Engineering and AI respectively. Amnic will be reportedly operating in the DevOps toolchain space.
Ankit Bhati – Success Story
Ankit Bhati struggled in his old apartment near IIT Bombay, inspecting his intellect to code the Ola website. He vividly recalled those days when he used to save money from his pocket to visit a cyber cafe. He used to spend his time in chat rooms to discover the world of the internet.
When Ankit joined IIT Bombay, he spent most of his time at the computer center. Technology has changed a lot today and he thrives to deal with the challenges on daily basis. His 10 long years of experience has led him to encounter many technical glitches, though he manages to strive the team on. He eventually got to know the importance of data that helped him combat the technical glitches and driver partners for Ola.
Ankit Bhati is the co-founder of ANI Technologies. He founded the company with his college senior Bhavish Agarwal in 2010. ANI Technologies Private Limited is an online transportation company. It offers cab booking, riding, and renting services. Ola Cabs is the portal of ANI Technologies and it serves customers worldwide.
Ola was launched on 3 December 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati as the Founder and Co-founder of the ride-sharing company respectively. Initially, Ola was launched to offer holiday packages and weekend trips on Olatrips.com. The business merely changed to, what we today know as Ola Cabs.
Ankit Bhati was responsible to handle the technical facets of Ola Cabs to assure a swift, convenient and spontaneous experience for the customers and partners. Ankit Bhati had mentioned that his mornings in Ola used to start with understanding data. This ritualistically started every day with his gaining insights into the rides that OLA offered and which of them gained the most traction. Furthermore, he also looked into the needs of the customers, the ratings of the drivers, figuring out the quickest routes for drivers, calculating the time taken by drivers to reach a yonder point, whether a passenger would be willing to share rides, and for how long he would wait for the same and much more. Absorbed in all these complexities, Bhati decided to pave way for OLA.
Ola Cabs is one of the fastest-growing startups in India. The tech team of the company today holds over 1,000 people.
Ankit Bhati – Foodpanda Controversy
Ankit Bhati – Foodpanda Controversy
In 2017, Ola Cabs acquired food delivery start-up Foodpanda to rival Uber Eats. Some serious conflicts arose among Bhavish and Ankit when Ankit agreed to the contract of delivering food through Foodpanda via Ola Cabs. It has also been pointed out that Bhavish had issues regarding the food delivery matter through Ola Cabs.
Speculations arose again when Bhavish restricted Ankit inOla Electric. Ankit was only a small part of it through ANI Technologies. Ola Electric is Bhavish’s project to build a network of electric charging stations across the country. Bhavish bought 92.5 % of the Ola Electric. This is when Ankit decided to distance himself from the company. However, the distancing and the split of the OLA co-founders, as far as the rumor goes, are nothing but baseless rumors, as announced by Bhavish Aggarwal in his latest statement. The OLA co-founder said, “It’s a shame that baseless rumour-mongering and speculation is being fanned,” while denying the Moneycontrol report.
Ankit Bhati currently holds 7,62,385 shares in Ola’s India operations, which sums to around 25% stakes in the company. Furthermore, Bhati also holds 1,66,185 shares, which amounts to 6% stakes in the US operations of OLA.
Ankit Bhati – A Fresh Start with Amnic
While looking at the professional front, Ankit Bhati had last been associated with Ola Play. However, Ankit had taken what seemed like quite an exit from the day-to-day operations of the firm since the end of 2017. No official statements nor any notice was out on Ankit Bhati’s exiting the company and as we have mentioned Bhati still holds a considerable amount of shares.
Ankit Bhati simply took a break and it is now clear what he was doing in the meanwhile. Yes, we are talking about the new startup Amnic that Ankit Bhati co-founded along with two other Ola execs – Nimish Joshi and Satya Nagarajan. Amnic Technologies will be focusing on the Saas segment in DevOps toolchain space, goes the reports published on 8th January 2022. Furthermore, the report also mentioned that Amnic would be raising $15 Mn- $20 Mn from Sequoia Capital as part of its seed round. Zauba Corp already has this company listed since June 3, 2021, which is “involved in other computer-related activities”, such as maintenance of other company’s websites and creating multimedia presentations. However, confirmation is still pending from the alleged co-founders of Amnic. Their social profiles also refrain from mentioning any updates of the same.
FAQs
Who is Ankit Bhati?
Ankit Bhati is Co-founder at Ola since September 2010.
Where was Ankit Bhati born?
Ankit Bhati was born in 1987 in Jodhpur, a city in Rajasthan, India.
What is Ankit Bhati education?
Ankit Bhati has done B.Tech in Mechanical engineering and M.Tech in CAD & Automation from IIT, Bombay.
What is Ankit Bhati net worth?
Ankit Bhati has a net worth of around INR 1400 crores, when last reported in September 2019.
Tejas Mundhada
