New Delhi: Bengaluru-based ride-hailing app Ola is on the verge of making its foray into the used car retailing business. This business will be known as ‘Ola Cars’ and would be the company’s first major product launch since 2019. The ride-hailing app will compete against companies like Spinny and CarDekho in the used car retailing segment.
Ola has already started building its team for this business and will begin the pilot from Bengaluru by the second half of August. “The senior management at Ola sees it as a complementary business model to its core business-mobility,” Entrackr reported.
The Bengaluru-based company will most likely enter with a full-stack model wherein it will buy cars from people and driver-partners and sell them after all glitches are removed.
Ola’s entry into the used car retailing business comes at a time when its ride-hailing business has gone down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its auto and bike businesses have, however, seen a drastic rise during the past two years. Ola has also rolled out its electric scooter– Ola Electric Scooter and said the scooter will be available in 10 colours. The upcoming scooter is expected to be priced between Rs 1.2 lakh-Rs 1.4 lakh (ex-showroom).
Ola is also preparing to list on the bourses via IPO (initial public offering). IPO will help investors like SoftBank, Steadview Capital, and Tiger Global to exit or partially sell their stake in Ola to return their funds to their shareholders. The company has also raised $500 million (approximately Rs 3,733 crore) investment from Temasek, Warburg Pincus and its founder Bhavish Agarwal recently.
(With Inputs from BT)
