Ola GMV higher than pre-covid levels, says CEO

The gross merchandise value (GMV) of Softbank-backed ride-hailing company Ola crossed the pre-pandemic levels in the week to August 31, said Ola Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bhavish Aggarwal on Tuesday. He said the recovery from the second wave of Covid-19 had been three times faster than during the first wave last year.

“India is moving again. Our Ola cabs GMV crossed precovid levels last week. Recovery from the second wave is three times faster. Clearly, India is up and about,” Aggarwal tweeted.

Aggarwal said 10 million people used Ola for the first time ever in FY21. He said as people moved, they wanted to feel safe so they were switching to personal or shared mobility instead of public transport.

“Many are moving to autos, taking our auto business to almost 150 per cent of precovid levels,” said Aggarwal.

He said the company was ensuring Ola rides were safe. Over 300,000 drivers on Ola are vaccinated and it will have all of them vaccinated soon. “We’re onboarding more driver-partners, entering new cities and building new products to better serve all your mobility needs after Covid. More soon. Let’s keep India moving,” said Aggarwal.

Last year in May, Ola announced laying off 1,400 employees, or over 33 per cent of its workforce, as Covid-19 continued to pound the transportation industry. The firm had said it had to take this step because the situation was not expected to improve anytime soon. That time, rival company Uber had also said it was slashing 3,000 jobs and closing dozens of offices globally. The companies recovered more than half the business by January.