Ola, the Indian ride-hailing upstart that rivals Uber in India, is seeing its newly appointed CEO Hemant Bakshi quitting the company. His resignation comes within just three months of joining, with several media reports highlighting disagreements with founder Bhavish Aggarwal on key issues, most notably around customer satisfaction. Aggarwal is reportedly back as CEO after this short 3 months hiatus from the position.
All of this comes when Ola is preparing its ride-hailing business for an IPO, that its long term investors have been waiting for, for a fairly long time. Meanwhile Aggarwal has since diverted his time to other ventures, such as Ola Electric and Krutrim AI — both of which have raised investor capital and have had their fair share of serious issues. It is unclear as to how Ola Cabs will structure its management, specially since it is setting for an imminent IPO in near future.
In an email that Aggarwal wrote to Ola employees and has since been leaked in the media, he writes, “We are undergoing a restructuring exercise aimed at improving profitability and preparing ourselves for the next phase of growth. These changes will result in certain roles within the company becoming redundant. This decision was not made lightly, and we are committed to supporting those impacted during this transition period… Hemant will be stepping down from his role as CEO to pursue opportunities outside the company”.
The e-mail, while confirming Bakshi’s departure, also hinted at possible layoffs as Ola struggles for profitability despite being in the business for years. Bakshi had told media outlets in January of this year, that ANI Technologies — the parent of the cab-hailing business — had turned profitable on an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) basis in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023.
