Inside Bhavish Aggarwal’s leadership team at Ola

With 18 direct reportees and two large businesses to oversee, Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO of Ola, has his hands full. 

Ola Group operates two companies: ANI Technologies, which houses the company’s core mobility business, and Ola Electric, which is a separate clean-mobility manufacturing and distribution arm.​​

In July, ANI Technologies raised $500 million in funding led by private equity giants Temasek and Warburg Pincus. Aggarwal also participated in the round. Separately, Ola Electric raised $100 million in debt from Bank of Baroda for its electric vehicle manufacturing facility.

As Ola grew and diversified over the last few years, it also underwent significant top level changes. These include the exits of former COO Arun Srinivas, former Senior Vice President Sanjiv Saddy, and former CEO (Financial Services) Nitin Gupta. Ola has since rejigged its organization structure and hired several people in key positions. 

This time, the company has made a clear distinction between its core mobility and new electric mobility businesses, as the capitalization tables for the two differ. Aggarwal is the CEO at both the businesses.

Ola has also consolidated its financial services, food and mobility businesses to streamline operations, sources say.

In June, the company appointed G.R. Arun Kumar, who was Executive Director and Group CFO at Vedanta Resources, as Group CFO of Ola (the parent company) as well as CFO of Ola Electric. 

Separately, it hired Swayam Saurabh from Hindustan Zinc as CFO for Ola’s mobility, financial services and food businesses.

Most of Ola’s recent focus in terms of hiring has been on building up its electric mobility arm, as its core business slowly recovers from the pandemic disruptions. 

“The market for cabs will come back at its own pace. Electric scooter, however, is a new domain for the company and therefore requires all hands on deck, and that’s how it is,” said a top Ola executive.