One of Ola’s longest serving executive and a member of its core founding team, COO Pranay Jivraj is now been elevated as a Founding Partner. Earlier, he was working as a chief operating officer (COO) of the company. This however, comes with a veteran making his entry into the Ola scene, with PepsiCo’s Vishal Kaul, replacing Jivraj as the new COO. Kaul handled the FMCG giant’s operations in Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.
Commenting on this, Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO and Co-founder at Ola, said,
I’m thrilled about Vishal joining Ola to lead our operations. Vishal’s energy is palpable and I have really enjoyed my interactions with him since we began interacting a few months ago. He is a passionate and experienced business leader with a demonstrated ability to drive business towards growth and profitability. His intuitive understanding of consumer businesses, ecosystem management experience and market understanding is invaluable. I look forward to partnering with him as we expand our reach and build Ola to serve the needs of every single Indian.
Pranay Jivraj, who is an IIT Bombay graduate, joined Ola founders Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati in the year 2011, around seven months after the startup was formed. When he joined, he was responsible for overseeing the Softbank-backed company’s operations.
Ola has seen several top executives quitting the company, including Rushil Goel, product lead for Ola Money, Pradeep Dodle, head of Ola’s cab category management, and Harsha Kumar, associate VP at Ola.
India’s cab hailing market is pegged at around $6-9 billion, has witnessed Ola and Uber locked in a bitter battle for market share. India is Uber’s fastest-growing business and as per its CEO Travis Kalanick, it will turn profitable soon.
On the other hand, Ola is operating across 100 cities in India, and has been trying to strengthen its leadership team and raise fresh funds. So far, the company has raised around $1.3 billion in external funding.
