Ola Cabs

Ola Cabs (stylized as OLΛ) is an Indian global ridesharing firm headquartered in Bangalore, with operations across the world. Besides financial services, cloud kitchens, and used-car marketplaces, it also has a presence in other industry sectors such as insurance. Large investments in the business are held by a number of venture capital firms, among which is Softbank.

Ola expanded into its first international market, Australia, in January 2018, and debuted in New Zealand in September of that same year. Ola started operating in the United Kingdom in March of this year.

Earlier this year, Ola Cabs announced that it has bought Bangalore-based cab operator TaxiForSure for about Rs. 12.37 billion (US$160 million). Ola customers now have access to TFS taxis via the Ola smartphone application, which was launched in June 2015. Later in the year, in November, Ola completed the acquisition of Geotagg, a firm that develops trip-planning apps, for an unknown price.

Ola bought struggling foodtech firm Foodpanda India in December 2017 with an aim on exploiting the booming food delivery sector market. The acquisition was part of Ola's strategy to expand beyond taxi aggregation. Ridlr (previously Traffline), a public transportation ticketing app, was acquired by Ola in April 2018, marking the company's second purchase. Later, in August 2018, Ola invested $100 million in the Series A funding round of the scooter rental startup Vogo, and again in December, the company contributed an additional $100 million.

In March 2019, the Karnataka state transport department suspended Ola's operating licence for a period of six months due to the company's failure to comply with licencing terms and the Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregator Rules, 2016, which were both violated. This was due to the fact that Ola was providing bike taxi services despite the fact that it only has a licence to provide four-wheeled taxi services. The firm described the decision as disappointing and said that it was considering collaborating with driving partners in order to maintain operations. They also claimed to be in contact with authorities in order to resolve the situation.

More than 10,000 drivers applied in both online and offline modes in 2019, in advance of the service's debut in London in May. Ola debuted its taxi-hailing services in London in February 2020, with over 25,000 drivers already signed up to work with the company.

Ola reported its first-ever operational profit of 90 crore (US$12 million) in the financial year 2020-21, marking the company's first-ever profit.