- General
- August 7, 2018
- 6 minutes read
Ola plans to take on Uber in the U.K. market
Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal (right) during a CNBC Power Talk interview image credit : Ola Cabs Leading Indian…
 |
|||||||||||||||||
| Ola co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal (right) during a CNBC Power Talk interview |
image credit : Ola Cabs
Leading Indian ride-hailing unicorn Ola Cabs has announced its plans to get into the U.K. market with its ride-hailing service with licenses already obtained to operate in South Wales and Greater Manchester with an imminent launch set for next month.
This will mark another major global ride-hailing company getting into the market where Uber counts a crucial presence which although had been affected by regulatory hassles has coped to get a 15 month extension for its operating license which was previously withdrawn.
The company’s co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal stated “Ola is excited to announce its plans for the UK, one of the world’s most evolved transportation markets. The UK is a fantastic place to do business and we look forward to providing a responsible, compelling, new service that can help the country meet its ever demanding mobility needs. We look forward to our continued engagement with policymakers and regulators as we expand across the country and build a company embedded in the UK.”
Ola will let users hire private vehicles and taxis through its platform notably being the only U.K. ride-hailing app which offers such and also intends on working with authorities to expand its reach nationwide in addition to dishing out new features.
Its entry into U.K. marks one following a launch in Australia February this year competing with Uber in the market where it saw drivers take on strikes just recently over calls for pay boosts.
The U.K. is known to have stricter regulations concerning ride-hailing with serveral rules have to be met before entry by ride-hailing companies and known for suspending licenses of both Uber and notable ride-hailing firm Taxify with the latter getting suspended just a week after starting over questions of how it obtained the license.
Ola now has over 1 million drivers across more than 110 cities who make use of its service to deliver enormous numbers of rides each year indicating remarkable growth for the 7 year old Bangalore based startup which has raised well over $2 Billion in funding from the likes of Softbank, Tencent, Sequioa, DST Global, Vanguard, Tiger Global and others.
