Online cab aggregator Ola, has acquired Geotagg, a startup focused on intelligent transportation systems for an undisclosed amount, reports ET.
Emails sent out to Ola did not elicit any responses.
The deal has been made at a time when Ola is planning to invest $50 Mn to launch its intra-city shuttle service. The acquisition will help Ola to strengthen its bus-shuttle service. The company had planned to launch the pilot project in the Gurgaon and Bangalore. However, Ola’s plans to start a bus shuttle service in Bangalore came to a major halt after the Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said that it didn’t seek any permission from the government for the same.
Founded by IIT-Madras alumni Akhilesh Koppineni and Krishna Chaitanya and incubated at IIT-Madras, Chennai-based Geotagg is a trip planning applications company , offering a suite of products for Advanced Passenger Information Systems enabled across the web, mobile and kiosk etc. platforms. Its core technology addresses multiple issues specific to urban traffic scenarios like peak-hour traffic jams, overtaking of vehicles and vehicles going detour.
Currently the company is in the process of developing e-ticketing applications/modules, fleet management systems, route optimisation systems and traffic density mapping systems.
According to industry estimates, around 70 Mn people travel via 1.5 lakh buses everyday in India, thereby making it one of the prime mode of transportation. There are several startups which are eyeing the lucrative sector.
The startup names include Cityflo, rBus, Shuttl and ZipGo. Shuttl, a Gurgaon-based marketplace for point-to-point bus travel handles around 15000 rides per day in the Delhi-NCR region. It offers optimisation of routes, tracking of buses in real time and automated payments through its technology. Cityflo, a Mumbai-based bus aggregator manages about 2200 rides a day.
Ola is looking at expanding its business by offering different avenues like shuttle services, carpooling and motorcycle-taxis. In a short span of five years, the startup has served over 25 Mn customers and over 150 Mn cumulative bookings through its platform.
This is Ola’s second acquisition after it acquired TaxiForSure in March this year. Currently it holds about 60% of the market share in the taxi-hailing service.
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