Ola acquires TaxiForSure for $200 mn

TaxiForSure to continue as an independent entity; Arvind Singhal to lead as new CEO, with leadership team intact

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | March 3, 2015

Furthering its aim to revolutionise personal transportation in the country, Ola (formerly Olacabs), a leading mobile app for personal transportation, has announced its acquisition of cab aggregator TaxiForSure for $200 million in a cash and equity deal. With this deal, Ola, which has over 1 lakh vehicles on its platform, has further deepened its footprint with TaxiForSure's operator-led model.

Ola and TaxiForSure will continue to operate as separate entities. The leadership and all of the 1,700 employees shall continue to work with TaxiForSure, with Arvind Singhal (currently COO) being appointed the CEO. Aprameya Radhakrishna and Raghunandan G, the founders of TaxiForSure, will contribute in an advisory role for a certain period. TaxiForSure currently operates in 47 cities with over 15,000 vehicles registered on its platform.

There is significant complimentary value that this acquisition adds, both on the supply and demand side, for Ola and TaxiForSure. TaxiForSure follows a different model of supply and distribution by working with cab operators, compared to Ola's model of working with driver-entrepreneurs. TaxiForSure has also focused heavily on the economy segment of cab consumers with innovative offerings like Tata Nanos as part of their fleet and Rs 49 as base fares in the past. For customers, drivers and operators on the TaxiForSure platform, nothing will change. Customers can continue to book a cab through the app and call centre and drivers will continue to get access to customers on TaxiForSure's technology platform as always.

Commenting on the development, Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO, Ola, said, “Ola and TaxiForSure share the same vision of revolutionising urban mobility. TaxiForSure has a great team and they have built a very exciting business in a short time. There's a lot of complementary value in the strategy TaxiForSure has followed. I'm very excited to welcome the TaxiForSure team onboard and look forward to working with them towards realising our common vision.”

Raghunandan G, Co-founder and CEO, TaxiForSure, added here, “TaxiForSure coming together with Ola will provide us with more opportunity than ever, to do what we do best. Post this acquisition, the combined entity will be strong enough and better capitalised to offer the best value to all our stakeholders, including our customers. This development ensures that industry attractiveness is preserved and the combined entity can race ahead and continue to create unprecedented value for all stakeholders.”

Ola has been funded by Tiger Global, Matrix Partners, Sequoia Capital, Steadview Capital and most recently, Softbank over its four rounds of fund-raising. Investors in TaxiForSure are Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners. With this acquisition, investors in TaxiForSure will roll over their stock into Ola.

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