Ola has bought a geo-spatial startup ahead of its IPO

• GeoSpoc is part of UNICEF’s Innovation Fund Investments in Skills and Connectivity.
• The company was founded seven years ago, and counts Starbucks and SBI as its clients.
• GeoSpoc’s CEO Dhruva Rajan, along with his team of Geospatial scientists and engineers, will be joining Ola post this acquisition.

Initial public offering (IPO)-bound Ola has acquired geo-analytics company GeoSpoc in order to further arm its ride hailing services with better technology.

GeoSpoc was founded by Dhruva Rajan, Geetha Krishna and Krishna Rajan in 2014. The company offers location-based solutions, services and products to verticals to companies across several vertices. It’s clients include Starbucks, Swiggy, Asian Paints, State Bank of India and others.

GeoSpoc is part of UNICEF’s Innovation Fund Investments in Skills and Connectivity.

Ola’s cofounder and chief executive officer (CEO) Bhavish Aggarwal announced this acquisition in a blogpost.

He mentioned that GeoSpoc’s CEO Dhruva Rajan, along with his team of Geospatial scientists and engineers, will be joining Ola to develop technologies which will “make mobility universally accessible, sustainable, personalised, and convenient, across shared and personal vehicles.”

Aggarwal further added that enhanced geo-spactial services will also prove to be beneficial in improving urban planning, including road network, better public transportation and pre-empt congestion spots.

“Ola has the data and the expertise to build this utilizing its 'deep understanding of consumer movements as well as our massive network of 2,3 and 4Ws that provide unprecedented geo-spatial details'. We can layer this data with new sources such as satellite imagery and visual feeds from our network on-ground to build ‘Living Maps’ that embody the changing landscape of our world,” Aggarwal added.

Ola was founded by Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati in 2010. The company has its presence across three continents and is said to be valued at around $6 billion.

The Bengaluru-based ride hailing giant — which competes with $86 billion-worth Uber — has raised more than $4 billion to date from marquee investors like SoftBank, Tencent, Steadview Capital, Eternal, Sailing Capital, China Eurasian Economic Cooperation Fund and others.

Ola raised half a billion dollars in July, as a part of its IPO round.

SEE ALSO
TCS earnings may excite the street thanks to the 14 new deals in last three months
Facebook shareholders lost nearly $50 billion in the 9 hours that the social network, WhatsApp and Instagram were down
HDFC Bank, SREI Infra, ONGC, Airtel and other stocks to watch out for as markets tumble across the world