Amid Restructuring, Ankush Aggarwal Returns To Ola Cabs’ Ride Hailing Biz

Amid restructuring at Ola Cabs, founder Bhavish Aggarwal’s brother Ankush Aggarwal has returned to the ride-hailing business after a stint with Ola Electric. 

Ankush Aggarwal is a part of the senior leadership team or what is being internally referred to as the ‘CXO team’.

This move comes after the company’s chief executive officer, Hemant Bakshi, resigned within months of joining the startup.

Bakshi resigned last month. Although he joined Ola Cabs from Hindustan Unilever around September 2023, the company made his appointment public in January this year.

As per ET, Aggarwal is set to take on multiple responsibilities within Ola Cabs, akin to his role at the electric vehicle maker. Additionally, he is slated to assume the role of chief executive at Ola Financial Services.

He was the chief business officer at Ola Electric.

As per the report, a spokesperson for Ola Cabs has confirmed his appointment as the CEO of Ola Financial Services. 

Inc42 has reached out to Ola for a comment on the development. The story will be update based on the response.

It is pertinent to note that Ola Cabs and Ola Financial Services fall under ANI Technologies, distinct from Ola Electric Mobility, which was founded by Bhavish Aggarwal.

Besides Ankush Aggarwal, whose lending startup Avail Finance was acquired by ANI Technologies in 2022, the CXO team comprises executives such as chief financial officer Kartik Gupta and chief business officer Sidharth Shakdher. Both Gupta and Shakdher have been part of Ola Cabs for less than one and a half years.

After these changes, Bhavish Aggarwal himself is expected to spearhead the business and is said to be focused on turning a net profit, the report added.

“It’s essentially he (Bhavish Aggarwal) who is back looking at the daily numbers of the ride-hailing business, and the existing team at the company will work with him,” a source told ET.

Founded in 2010, Ola Cabs competes with the likes of Uber and BluSmart in the ride-hailing market in India.

Prior to Bakshi’s resignation, the startup fired employees in two layoffs rounds in the last two years. In January last year, it laid off 200 employees across Ola Cabs, Ola Electric, and Ola Financial Services.

ANI Technologies’ consolidated net loss nearly halved to INR 772.2 Cr in FY23 from INR 1,522.3 Cr in the previous fiscal year. Operating revenue rose 42% to INR 2,799.3 Cr from INR 1,970.4 Cr in FY22.

Ola Cabs recently claimed that its India mobility business broke even with ‘segment-adjusted’ EBITDA of about INR 250 Cr in FY23 as against an EBITDA loss of INR 66 Cr in the year-ago period. The revenue of its India mobility arm jumped 58% year-on-year to INR 2,135 Cr in the year ended March 2023, the company said.

Meanwhile, with an eye on its public listing, Ola Cabs recently shut its operations in the UK, New Zealand, and Australia to focus on the India market.

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