Ola Cabs CEO Hemant Bakshi steps down, Aggarwal to handle daily ops: report

Cab aggregator Ola Mobility chief executive officer (CEO) Hemant Bakshi has resigned just four months into his term, The Economic Times reported, citing people aware of the development.

A former executive at Unilever, Bakshi had joined Ola in the middle of September, though the company publicly announced it in January, the report said.  

Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal will look after the day-to-day affairs at Ola Cabs after Bakshi’s exit, effective immediately, the ET report said.

ANI Technologies, the parent firm of the cab-hailing app, is also planning to lay off 10% of its staff, affecting about 200 employees, the report added. 

This comes as Ola Mobility is planning an initial public offering (IPO) to raise $500 million and already is in talks with investment banks to appoint advisers. 

The initial share sale is expected to value the company at about $5 billion. 

Ola is backed by SoftBank, Vanguard, Warburg Pincus, Temasek, and Tiger Global Management.

Founded by Aggarwal, Ola was valued at $7 billion in a 2021 fundraising round. It has raised over $4 billion in funding since its inception.

Aggarwal has since launched Ola Electric, which manufactures electric two-wheelers, and an artificial intelligence firm called Krutrim AI. 

Ola Mobility, its flagship ride-hailing division, had reported a loss of ₹1,082.56 crore ($129.6 million) in fiscal 2023 against a loss of ₹3,082.42 crore ($369 million) in FY22.

As of 31 March 2023, total accumulated loss of Ola Mobility stood at ₹19,649.27 crore ($2.35 billion) while its parent ANI Technologies posted a total loss of  ₹20,223.45 crore ($2.42 billion).