Ola names Rajiv Bansal as its new CFO

Ola has named Infosys vetran Rajiv Bansal as its chief financial officer . Bansal has a rich experience of 21 years and will join the on demand transporation major in January 2016.  The current CFO Mitsh Shah will head the strategic finance team and will report to Bansal for various financial measures.

In an interview given to ET ,” Bhavish Aggarwal CEO of the company has said Rajiv’s understanding and expertise in the finance domain is extremely valuable for us at this juncture of growth.”

Ola recently received its final round of funding of $500 million from Baillie Gifford, China’s biggest taxi aggregator Didi Kuaidi and existing investors Falcon Edge, Tiger Global, SoftBank, and DST Global. The company is currently worth over $5 billion and has raised $1.3 billion so far.

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Ola, now worth $5billion,raises 500 million

Indian Taxi app unicorn Ola, has raised 500 million from a series of new and existing investors.The series F funding was lead by investor Baillie Gifford and existing investors like Tiger Global,Falcon edge, Softbank group and DST global.With this amount Ola has raised a total of $1.4billion from investors.The company plans to use the money to further accelerate in the existing markets and penetrate in more cities and town.The company’s app has already crossed more than 1 million in downloads and has recieved more than 1 billion bookings so far.The company is present in more than 100 cities across India.

The funding comes at an intersting time when the global market leader Uber, has planned to invest $1billion to tap the growing Indian internet population.Uber targets only high end customers in the country and is present only in 22 cities.
“As we pursue our mission to build mobility for a billion people, we are excited about bringing onboard partners who can help us get there faster,” Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola said in a statement. “We will continue to build for the local market through innovative solutions like Ola Share, Ola Prime and Ola Money, as we grow the mobile ecosystem in India.”

According to Uber it plans to surpass its total ridership in US.The basic difference between the two services was that OLA allowed cash payement to its customers while uber only focused on the in app payments.Both the companies have come to common terms if we talk about payments.OLA recently launched its in app wallet named OLA money which allows customers to makepayments in app.

Now book Urban Clap Chefs from OLA

India’s popular startups OLA and Urban Clap have joined hands in order to make the life of their customers easier . In a recent development , users can use the exclusive chefs registered with urban clap . These chefs would prepare exclusive gourment meals for OLA customers at prices as low as Rs200 . Upto 14 friends can be invited for this meal party .The scheme is only available in Delhi NCR and will be availble for registered OLA customers . According to Deep Singh , head of business OLA , “Diwali is a festival of joy, family and friends getting together and of course, great food. With a top-chef on-demand and a chance to win gold coins, we intend to add to the cheer and excitement of our customers. We are delighted that we can be an integral part of their celebrations, this festive season. We wish all our customers a very Happy Diwali!”

Abhiraj Bhal, Co-Founder, UrbanClap said “An exciting new service for our discerning customers wherein they can have a gourmet meal cooked in their homes during the festivities. UrbanClap Chefs brought to the doorstep of our discerning customers by Ola Cabs will make home festivities easier, convenient and a lot more enjoyable!”