Ola Bike Is Now Present In 150 cities, Looks To Grow 3X In A Year

India’s largest ride-hailing company Ola said on Sept. 13 that its two-wheeler service Ola Bike is currently operating in 150 cities across the country. Also, the team is eyeing to amplify its business by three times within the next 12 months. 

In a statement, Ola claimed to have given rise to nearly 300,000 micro-entrepreneurs last year, thus maintaining the biggest number of bike partners in India. The on-demand service was first launched in 2016 in three states including Faridabad, Gurugra, and Jaipur, now having scaled up to Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chandigarh, and more. 

Ola Bike is eyeing to spread its service to customers from even “the smallest of towns” besides the current metro cities. It is undoubtful that Tier-II and -III areas will be the next spotlights in the company’s business strategies. Meanwhile, on the international arena, Ola has clearly shown its intention of dominating the market with its expansion to Australia, and later New Zealand and the UK. 

Ola Bike: The nation-wide expansion

In recent time, two-wheelers are contributing to the major proportion of vehicles functioning in India. The practice arises from the fact that traffic congestion, especially in metro cities such as Bengaluru or Mumbai, causing the loss of approximately 1.5 lakh crore each year, according to a study. At the same time, two-wheeler vehicles deliver both affordability and accessibility which make them the most appropriate solution for blockage. 

Therefore, such a move promises a huge opportunity for Ola Bike, as long as the company successfully gets through several regulatory barriers. 

Ola has been establishing another business segment called Ola Electric Mobility. The vertical focuses on building the charging infrastructure and offering services related to EVs including taxis, buses, as well as e-rickshaws. For this electric business alone, the ride-hailing giant has received an investment of over Rs 1,725 crore from SoftBank earlier this year.