Ola names PepsiCo's Vishal Kaul as COO

Growing trend among Indian start-ups to bring experienced professionals to run business

India's largest cab aggregator Ola has named Vishal Kaul, a former PepsiCo executive as its chief operating officer, a trend that is picking up among large Indian start-ups of bringing experienced hands to run operations as investors look at returns.

Ola's peers in the Indian startup space such as Flipkart and Snapdeal have also brought in outside professionals to steer the company's path forward. Early this month, Snapdeal named Jason Kothari, former CEO of Housing.com, who turned the company and help merge with larger rival NewsCorp's PropTiger, as its chief strategy officer.

India's largest e-commerce firm Flipkart saw Kalyan Krishnamurthy, who came