India’s ride-hailing firm Ola has fired 200 employees from its tech and products team, joining a growing list of Indian startups laying off staff to put a lid on costs as investors focus on bottom lines amid a funding crunch.
The firm said the impacted employees belong across the verticals of Ola Cabs, Ola Electric, and Ola Financial Services.
“We regularly conduct restructuring exercises to improve efficiencies, and there are roles that are now redundant. We will continue making new hires in engineering and design, including senior talent in our key priority areas,” an Ola Spokesperson said in an emailed response to DealStreetAsia.
The layoffs come months after the firm rescinded its plans to terminate 200 engineering roles.
The SoftBank-backed unicorn had already laid off over 1,000 employees as the company shut multiple other businesses like its used car marketplace, food, and grocery delivery.
Ola has been facing intense competition from Uber, Rapido, and other local players in the Indian market. Furthermore, Ola has been investing heavily in new initiatives such as electric vehicles and food delivery, which has strained its financials.
Earlier this week, the company reportedly shut down its recently acquired Avail Finance app and integrated it with OlaMoney. Ola bought Avail Finance, founded by Ola’s founder Bhavish Aggarwal’s brother Ankush Aggarwal, last year. Last year, it shut down Ola Dash — its quick commerce business — and used-cars retail Ola Cars.
Despite this, the firm aims to launch an IPO in the second half of this year, Bhavish Aggarwal said last month.
The firm declined to give details on its latest expenses. In the year ended FY 21, the company’s total expenses went down from Rs 5,058 crore to Rs 2,007 crore. In Feb last year, Ola had raised $20 million in its ongoing Series J round from Axis Growth Avenues AIF, and Arrow Multi-Asset Fund, reportedly at a valuation of $7.15-7.3 billion.