Inc42 Daily Brief
Stay Ahead With Daily News & Analysis on India’s Tech & Startup Economy
Olacabs has announced the launch of their in-app wallet feature enabling cash free rides for customers and a seamless payment experience. The new wallet will allow customers to recharge their account through a credit / debit card or their online banking account right from the app. The available balance will automatically deducted from the customer’s wallet against the final fare after ride completion and a receipt is e-mailed, making it a fully cashless experience. The wallet will not only allow users to ride cashless, but also help them gift a ride or pre-pay for their loved ones! The Ola app currently has over 25,000 cars available across 15 cities.
To remove the hassle of paying in cash at the end of a ride, the mobile wallet from Ola will enable users to recharge their account for a sum anywhere between INR 100 – 5000.
As per the company, over 70% of Ola’s bookings come through the app today.
Harsha Kumar, Head of Products at Ola said, “Providing customers a seamless travel experience has always been our priority. We are very excited about the possibilities that our mobile wallet offers and firmly believe that our customers will love this cash-free experience. We have added a host of additional and unique features in the latest app. These features, along with offering a great travel experience, will also make traveling within the city more convenient and secure for every one!”
Along with the wallet, the app has also added a number of other new features and has a completely new design and interface. Here are some of the newly added features:
Online payment options: Customers can use the Ola wallet to recharge their Ola account through credit / debit cards and net banking. This feature will also enable customers to gift rides to friends and family – a much needed feature for cab booking today, as the amount will be deducted directly from the account from which the cab was booked. Customers can also recharge during their ride if they are not carrying cash since the fare shown at the end of the trip will take into account such payments. Customers can access a complete transaction history of payments and usage right on the app.
Security features – Know your driver, share ride details: Ola has also added a new security feature whereby the photograph of the driver is displayed right on the app along with his phone number and number of the cab. This ensures that a customer knows exactly who will be driving them around when they book on the Ola app. Along with this, the app enables customers to share their location with their loved ones while they are travelling in an Ola simply by forwarding an SMS with a unique link that will track the cab on a map in real-time as well as display details of the driver and the cab. This makes the entire experience even more secure and reliable.
Upfront details of ETA and rate card, ride time and fare estimator: Until now, customers had to select the specific category to check the ETA (expected time of arrival) of the nearest available cab on the app. The new update allows customers a single view of ETAs across categories. It also allows customers to compare fares by category as well as ask for a ride time and fare estimate by category viz. Mini, Sedan or Prime. This ushers in ease of use and transparency for users in a single view on the app, also considerably reducing the time to book their cab!
Easy booking features – airport booking, enhanced search and favorites: Ola has enabled an option for customers to directly book cabs to the airport, something that was missing in previous versions due to differential pricing for airport travel. Apart from this, the app also offers a list of top pickup points for customers to select from quickly to book a cab, as well as mark their favorite places accurately for future pickups.
Founded in 2011 by IIT Bombay graduates Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhat Olacabs had raised INR 250 Cr in funding in July this year. The startup has raised around $65 Mn in funding in three rounds of institutional funding and is valued at about Rs.1000 Cr.
Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.