Ola launches vehicle buying platform Ola Cars, names Arun Sirdeshmukh CEO

Ola, India’s largest mobility platform, on Thursday, announced Ola Cars, its new vehicle commerce platform that will provide vehicle purchase and ownership experience to consumers.

It will compete with players such as Droom, CarDekho, Cars24, Spinny, Carwale and CarTrade. Ola Cars will begin with pre-owned and, over time, Ola will open it up for new vehicles from Ola Electric and other automotive brands. The firm said it will be providing them a seamless platform with unprecedented reach and understanding of consumers and their mobility needs. Starting with 30 cities, Ola Cars will soon scale up to over 100 cities by next year.

“Customers are looking for a new way to buy, service and sell their vehicles. They are no longer satisfied with the archaic retail store mode. They want more transparency and a digital experience,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and CEO, Ola. “With Ola Cars, we are bringing a completely new experience for buying, selling and overall ownership for both new and owned vehicles.

Ola Cars will enable consumers to purchase both new and pre-owned vehicles through the Ola App. It will offer a bouquet of services to customers, beginning with purchase, vehicle finance and insurance, registration, maintenance including vehicle health diagnostics and service, accessories and finally resale of the vehicle back to Ola Cars. It will be a one-stop shop for customers looking at hassle-free buying, selling and managing their cars.

The company also announced the appointment of Arun Sirdeshmukh as chief executive officer of Ola Cars. Sirdeshmukh brings more than 30 years of experience in consumer internet, FMCG, retail and fashion industries, including with Amazon India, Reliance Trends and IBM Global Services. He will oversee the entire sales and distribution, service, marketing, customer support, and go-to-market strategy for the business.

Sirdeshmukh, CEO of Ola Cars said Ola has always been committed to delivering technology-driven innovations to enhance consumers’ mobility experience. He said with Ola Cars, the firm is completely reimagining not just buying and selling but also vehicle finance, insurance, as well as maintenance. This includes an end-to-end digital-first experience for the customers. “We have plans to expand aggressively over the next few months across India and international markets and also launch new verticals in this business including pre-owned 2W (wheeler) and new vehicles,” said Sirdeshmukh.

Ola Cars is part of Ola’s larger vision of New Mobility that encompasses three key pillars. It includes ‘new mobility services’ expanding from 150 to 500 cities and increasing the reach from 100 million people to 500 million people. It also includes ‘new energy vehicles’ with EVs across existing and new vehicle form factors to bring cleaner, efficient and more affordable transportation to people. There is also ‘new auto retail’ that will dramatically improve the entire lifecycle of vehicle ownership for a customer. With ‘new mobility’ becoming mainstream, over a billion people will have access to mobility solutions tailor-made for them.

I look forward to working with Arun (Sirdeshmukh) and building this core pillar of our New Mobility vision,” said Aggarwal.

In July this year, SoftBank-backed Ola said Temasek and Plum Wood Investment Ltd, an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, were partnering company founder Bhavish Aggarwal for a $500-million investment ahead of its initial public offering (IPO). This was the first time that Ola had raised a major funding round since its Series J financing in 2019, according to data analytics firm Tracxn. Ola had raised about $4.3 billion, according to the data platform Crunchbase.

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