Olacabs raises Series B funding led by Matrix Partners and Tiger Global Management
– By Prathamesh Patil
Matrix Partners India recently announced that it has acquired a significant minority stake in Olacabs, India’s leading aggregator of car rental and point-to-point cab service operators. Matrix along with the existing investor Tiger Global Management, co-invested in the second institutional round of equity funding for the Company. Olacabs will use the funds to expand its operations to newer markets and to deepen its technology and analytics expertise.
“We are excited to bring Matrix Partners India on board along with Tiger Global as key investors. Matrix as a partner has a portfolio of high pedigree investments and rich experience in emerging markets. Combined with the rich global expertise of our existing investor Tiger Global, this partnership gives us the support and resources to grow rapidly at the pace we intend to. We will continue to create substantial value for our customers in terms of the Ola experience, as well as for our drivers and operators by helping them buy their own cars and improve business for them, thereby nurturing micro-entrepreneurship.” said Bhavish Aggarwal, co–Founder and CEO of Olacabs.
“Ola is leveraging technology to revolutionize ground transportation and is aggregating the highly fragmented cab and car rental market – one of the large travel verticals yet to be organized in India. It is our privilege to be associated with Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, the co-founders of Olacabs, who have built a scalable platform for online cab bookings. This platform provides a public utility by allowing Indian consumers to experience a safe, comfortable, standardized service offering at transparent and competitive prices.” said Avnish Bajaj, co-Founder and Managing Director, Matrix India.
Founded in January 2011 by two IIT Bombay alumni Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola aims to change the largely fragmented and inefficient car rental market by integrating technology both at the supply as well as demand side, in order to offer a seamless and predictable travel experience. Ola is the first service to offer an iPhone and Android mobile app that not only books a cab, but also helps customers track their cab in real-time.
Currently, well over 30% of Ola’s bookings come through its mobile app.
The Olacabs app for drivers acts as an in-car navigation cum fare device. On the supply side, the Company deeply analyses GPS / customer travel data and uses complex algorithms and analytics developed in-house, to derive consumable information that is used for inventory management, demand estimation and route planning.
Ola conducts regular car audits, driver training and sensitization sessions to ensure standardized service delivery and customer delight. Olacabs currently has over 6500 cabs on its platform and operates in 5 cities – Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Chennai.
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