Indian ride-sharing company, Ola has set foot in the vehicle commerce landscape with the launch of Ola Cars, a platform that will help customers purchase new and pre-owned cars while offering services like vehicle financing, registration, purchase, insurance, and maintenance.
Initially, the new platform will offer pre-owned vehicles, and in time will start rolling out new automobiles from Ola Electric and various other automobile brands.
According to a statement by Ola, its latest platform will commence operations in 30 cities across India and gradually expand to 100 by 2022.
Notably, the entity has appointed Arun Sirdeshmukh- as the chief executive officer of Ola Cars who will monitor sales and distribution, client support, service, marketing, and go-to-market strategy for the business.
Commenting on the future prospects of Ola Cars, Mr. Sirdeshmukh mentioned that the firm has established plans to aggressively expand in the next few months in India and overseas along with introducing new verticals in the business that includes pre-owned 2W and new cars.
Recently in October’21, Ola declared the acquisition of GeoSpoc- a geospatial service provider where the size of the deal was undisclosed.
On the other hand, in September 2021, Ola’s electric vehicle production arm- Ola Electric announced that it has secured more than USD 200 million from Japan’s SoftBank, and Falcon Edge Capital, at a valuation of USD 3 billion.
As per sources, the funding aims at strengthening the company’s ‘Mission Electric’ that encourages market players and consumers to commit to electric variants so that no petrol two-wheelers are sold across India after 2025.
Ola Electric is also said to be developing its two-wheeler electric vehicle facility in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu.
As per a blog post by Bhavish Agarwal, the founder of Ola, the firm is focusing on producing kick scooters, drones, e-bikes, and even flying cars under its future mobility plan to help the country meet its expanding transportation needs.
Source Credit: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/ola-launches-vehicle-commerce-platform-ola-cars/articleshow/86838426.cms