Ola Electric Ropes In Former BYJU’S Exec Jitesh Shah To Lead After-Sales Vertical

Ola Electric has appointed former BYJU’S executive Jitesh Shah as the head of its after-sales and services division. 

Shah will report to Ola Electric’s cofounder and managing director, Bhavish Aggarwal.

In his new role, Shah will spearhead the expansion of Ola’s service centres and fast-charging network. 

Additionally, he will oversee the extension of warranty on all new scooter sales, as announced by the company in February, ET reported, citing sources close to the matter 

“Shah started working at Ola Electric a few months ago, just ahead of the firm filing its draft listing papers with the public markets regulator,” one of the persons told ET.

Shah held one of the top executive positions at BYJU’S, overseeing business verticals along with another senior executive. He was appointed following the consolidation of four verticals into two by the edtech startup in August of the previous year, as part of its restructuring efforts.

Before joining BYJU’S in July 2022, Shah had a tenure of slightly over 14 years at the consulting giant Boston Consulting Group. During his time there, he rose to the position of Managing Director and Partner.

A brainchild of Ola Cabs cofounder Aggarwal, Ola Electric is an EV manufacturer that currently retails a portfolio of five scooter models. 

As per its DRHP, the company operates a full-fledged omnichannel distribution network that comprises 935 experience centres, including 414 service centres, at the end of October 2023.

In February, Aggarwal, founder and managing director of the electric scooter maker, announced plans to significantly expand the company’s infrastructure. This includes increasing the number of fast-charging points from the current 1,000 to 10,000 by the end of the next quarter. Additionally, the service centre network will be expanded from 400 to 600 by April 2024.

Furthermore, the company has extended the warranty for all its scooter variants to 80,000 kilometers or 8 years, doubling the previous coverage of 40,000 kilometers or 3 years.

On March 13, Ola Electric had finalised plans to launch an electric auto rickshaw, expected to be unveiled later this month.

This comes at a time, when the company is preparing to make some major announcements in the upcoming months, particularly concerning the gigafactory, ahead of its listing. The launch of the e-autorickshaw aligns with this strategy, and internally, the aim is to launch it within the next two weeks or so.

Back in December, the company filed its draft red herring prospectus with the markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for an INR 7,250 Cr initial public offering (IPO). As per the DRHP, the IPO comprises a fresh issue of INR 5,500 Cr.

The IPO will comprise an offer-for-sale (OFS) component of INR 1,750 Cr. In total, the public issue will comprise an OFS component of up to 9.5.1 Cr shares. Cofounder CEO Bhavish Aggarwal and major investors such as Softbank, Temasek, Tiger Global, Alpha Wave, Tekne Capital, and Matrix Partners are slated to participate in the OFS.

In October, Ola Electric also raised a INR 3,200 Cr funding round, in a mix of equity and debt, that saw participation from Temasek, SBI and others.