Ola is betting big on a $3 billion market where it has no major competition

• Indian ride hailing unicorn Ola today announced that it has gone live in London.
• Ola’s London launch has a big upside to it – it currently has no major competition there.
• Transport for London had recently revoked Uber’s licence in London, after drivers were held using fake identity cards.

Indian ride hailing unicorn Ola today went live in London too. The company, led by 34-year old Bhavesh Aggarwal, is already offering cab services in Birmingham, Liverpool, Exeter, Reading, Bristol, Bath, Coventry, and Warwick.


For its London business, Ola has also partnered with DriveTech (Part of the AA, Automobile Association), consulting giant Mercer and Pearson to ensure ‘highest standard of driving skills, and driver customer service and communication’.

It has already brought 25,000 drivers in London, on-board.

Ola’s London launch has a big upside to it – it currently has no major competition. Transport for London had recently revoked Uber’s licence in London, after drivers were held using fake identity cards. The authorities had found that 14,000 trips were taken with fake ID cards. Meanwhile, Uber’s American rival Lyft doesn’t operate in London, yet.

According to industry sources, London’s taxi business is worth $3 billion per annum. “We want to be the number 1 player in the market,” an Ola spokesperson told Business Insider.

Ola had also said that it will have an “industry-first driver facial recognition technology for continuous authentication” along with “storing digital copies of various documents including vehicle insurance certificate, MOT (Ministry of Transport) certificate, and driver’s licence, to ensure that they are always up to date”.

Ola began its international expansion 2 years ago in Feb 2018. Since then, it has steadily expanded to cover over 60 cities and towns across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

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