Ola (formerly Olacabs), one of India’s leading mobile app for personal transportation has acquired TaxiForSure for US$ 200 mn in a cash and equity deal. Ola and TaxiForSure will continue to operate as separate entities. The leadership and all of the 1700 employees shall continue to work with TaxiForSure, with Arvind Singhal (currently COO) being appointed the CEO. Aprameya Radhakrishna and Raghunandan G, the founders of TaxiForSure, will contribute in an advisory role for a certain period. TaxiForSure is currently in 47 cities with over 15,000 vehicles registered on its platform.
There is significant complimentary value that this acquisition adds both on the supply and demand side for Ola and TaxiForSure. The latter follows a different model of supply and distribution by working with cab operators compared to Ola’s model of working with driver- entrepreneurs. TaxiForSure has also focused heavily on the economy segment of cab consumers with innovative offerings like Tata Nanos as part of their fleet and INR 49 as base fares in the past. For customers, drivers and operators on the TaxiForSure platform, nothing will change. Customers can continue to book a cab through the app and call centre and drivers will continue to get access to customers on TaxiForSure’s technology platform as always.
Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO, Ola said, “Ola and TaxiForSure share the same vision of revolutionising urban mobility. TaxiForSure has a great team and they have built an exciting business in a short time. There’s a lot of complementary value in the strategy TaxiForSure has followed. I’m very excited to welcome the TaxiForSure team onboard and look forward to working with them towards realising our common vision.”
Raghunandan G, co-founder and CEO, TaxiForSure said, “TaxiForSure coming together with Ola will provide us with more opportunity than ever, to do what we do best. Post this acquisition; the combined entity will be strong enough and better capitalised to offer the best value to all our stakeholders, including our customers. This development ensures that industry attractiveness is preserved and the combined entity can race ahead and continue to create unprecedented value for all stakeholders.”