Ola poaches Flipkart top exec Joy Bandekar to head new initiatives

Prior to Flipkart, Bandekar worked at eBay Inc and had stints with Reliance Industries, Maxworth Orchards and Atcom Technologies

App-based taxi aggregator Ola has poached Flipkart executive Joy Bandekar to join its core leadership team as corporate president to head its new initiatives arm.

Bandekar, who comes with 10 years of experience in the e-commerce space in India and south-east Asia region, served as corporate president at Flipkart in his most recent stint.

“We are excited to welcome Joy to lead New Initiatives at Ola. His rich experience from a variety of businesses will be invaluable to us as we continue to grow the on demand mobility ecosystem in India,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola, in a statement.

Prior to Flipkart, Bandekar had worked at global e-commerce marketplace eBay. He also had stints with firms such as Kirloskar, Reliance Industries, Maxworth Orchards, and Atcom Technologies.

The appointment of Bandekar comes at a time when Ola is engaged in a heated battle with global rival Uber. The company recently announced its strategic partnership with China’s Didi Kuaidi, US-based Lyft and southeast Asian GrabTaxi, to help mount a global assault to curb Uber’s growth.

Ola is also looking at diversifying into different verticals such as on-demand hyperlocal grocery delivery, payments and other such ventures that are part of its new initiatives programme. It has also made it easy for third-party apps and services to integrate with it by making its application programme interface, or API, publicly available.