Ola Sacks 200 Employees Across Verticals In Restructuring Exercise: Report

The layoffs began earlier this week with the company offering severance packages to workers as per their respective notice periods

Ola has been in a cost-cutting mode since last year. The firm has shut down verticals such as Ola Play, Ola Cars, and Ola Dash.

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Cab aggregator Ola has sacked around 200 employees from its tech and product teams, according to a report by Inc42. The tech media portal cited a source saying that the laid-off employees are from Ola Cabs, Ola Electric, and Ola Financial Services verticals. It added that engineering roles are impacted the most. 

According to the report, the layoffs began earlier this week with the firm offering severance packages to workers as per their respective notice periods. 

Last year, Ola canceled a plane to its plans to terminate 200 engineering roles, this latest layoff is exactly the same as the one which was supposed to take place last year. However, an Ola spokesperson told Inc42, "We regularly conduct restructuring exercises to improve efficiencies, and there are roles which are now redundant. We will continue making new hires in engineering and design including senior talent in our key priority areas."

In December 2022, Ola Founder Bhavish Aggarwal told Business Standard that the company would start making lithium-ion cells and develop other products, including motorbikes and small, lightweight commercial vehicles. "We have been working on some of these things behind the scenes and over the next 12 months you see us announcing many of these products," he said.

The company also shut down its neo-banking firm Avail Finance earlier this week. It reportedly plans to merge Avail Finance with its subsidiary Ola Money and has stopped lending via the neo-banking platform.

Ola is entering into the premium EV cab service category with a fleet of 10,000 cars. The new fleet will be operated by top-rated drivers. The start-up also plans to launch multiple electric two-wheelers over the next two years.

Ola has been in a cost-cutting mode since last year. The firm has shut down verticals such as Ola Play, Ola Cars, and Ola Dash.

As per Inc42, Indian start-ups laid off over 18,000 employees last year. Indian start-ups are continuing to layoff in 2023.