SUMMARY
With Prime Plus, Ola offers complete ride assurance, eliminating any cancellations or operational hassles
Ola Prime Plus has been opened to select customers in Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad for now and the company would soon announce its full-scale rollout
Ola began the pilot of the no-cancellation service in Bengaluru and expanded it to all users in the city last month
Ride-hailing platform ola
has expanded its Prime Plus premium service to Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad, weeks after it expanded the no-cancellation service to all customers in Bengaluru on July 10.
The Prime Plus service is aimed at addressing the problem of ride cancellations by drivers on the platform. With Prime Plus, Ola offers complete ride assurance, eliminating any cancellations or operational hassles.
For now, Ola Prime Plus has been rolled out to select customers across the three new cities.
“After a successful pilot in Bengaluru, a full-scale rollout of the Prime Plus service across the city has also witnessed an overwhelming response. Buoyed with the success, we are now looking beyond Bangalore by expanding to Mumbai, Pune, and Hyderabad starting today. The full-scale rollout will follow soon,” said an Ola Spokesperson.
Ola cofounder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal also took to X (erstwhile Twitter) to announce the move.
“Expanding our @Olacabs Prime Plus service today to Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad. Excited to have more people experience it! Our Bengaluru Prime Plus trial has been hugely successful. Will open to select customers today and full scale rollout soon after,” said Aggarwal in an X post.
Ola currently offers cab, auto and bike services. Users can book a prime sedan or prime SUV, and get a car to rent on its app. Earlier this year, Ola also announced its entry into the premium EV category with a fleet of 10,000 cars.
The expansion of the Prime Plus service comes against the backdrop of the US-based investment firm Vanguard reportedly cutting the valuation of its stake in Ola, making it the second markdown this year.
The investment company marked down the valuation of its stake in the startup by 51.6% to $25 Mn at the end of May 2023 from the $51.7 Mn it invested initially. This translates to a valuation of $3.5 Bn for Ola, a far cry from the peak of $7.3 Bn in 2021.
Ola has also been engulfed by a host of controversies. Be it regulatory challenges or delayed financials or mounting competition from peers such as Uber and BluSmart, the ride-hailing company has been grabbing headlines for all the wrong reasons lately.
The company has laid off more than 2,500 employees since last year across multiple verticals and teams. While it has more or less shelved its public listing plans, it also undertook a massive restructuring drive to slash costs and shut cash-guzzling businesses.
