Ola GMV has crossed pre-pandemic levels, says CEO Bhavish Aggarwal

'Recovery from the second wave is 3 times faster. Clearly, India is up and about,' tweeted Aggarwal

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 infections has been three times faster as compared with the first wave last year.
 
“India is moving again. Our Ola cabs GMV crossed pre-covid levels last week. Recovery from the second wave is 3 times faster. Clearly, India is up and about,” Aggarwal, the founder of the IPO-bound firm tweeted.
 
Aggarwal said the 10 million people used Ola for the first time ever in FY21. He said as people move, they want to feel safe so they’re 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 pre-covid levels,” said Aggarwal.
 
He said the company is ensuring Ola rides are safe. Over 3 lakh drivers on Ola are vaccinated and it will have 100 per cent of them vaccinated soon. “We’re onboarding more driver-partners, entering new cities and building new products to better serve all your mobility needs post 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, the rival company Uber had also said it was slashing 3,000 jobs and closing dozens of offices globally.
 
The companies recovered more than half of the business by January. It got impacted again during the second wave of the pandemic early this year.
 
Ola is betting big on its electric vehicle business through its arm Ola Electric. The firm had announced in December 2020 that it would be investing Rs 2,400 crore for setting up phase 1 of the factory. The Ola Futurefactory is coming up on a 500-acre site in Tamil Nadu. At full capacity of 10 million vehicles annually, it would be the world’s largest two-wheeler factory and would handle 15 per cent of the world capacity.