Following a report last month, Ola has officially acquired TaxiForSure for $200 million in a cash and equity deal. The acquisition will boost Ola’s present in the crowded online taxi market.
Ola and TaxiForSure will continue to operate as separate entities even after the deal.The leadership and all of the 1700 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.
“Ola and TaxiForSure share the same vision of revolutionizing 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 realizing our common vision.”
said Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO, Ola.
TaxiForSure is currently in 47 cities with over 15,000 vehicles registered on its platform. Backed by Japan’s SoftBank, Ola Cabs is valued at $2 billion. The latest M&A between two taxi aggregators is a move to take on recent foreign entry Uber which started its Indian foray with a bang but has been suffering due to recent events involving rape allegations in December.