“Shedding cash burn heavy businesses like Dash and cutting employee costs will give Ola more operational runway and also show a profitable business if they want to IPO,” a source reported.
In an attempt to cut costs and streamline operations, SoftBank-backed Ola Cabs might be looking at laying off around 700 employees of Ola Cars and Ola Dash, sources familiar with the matter reported.
According to reports, team heads have been asked to prepare a list of people for the layoffs.
The cab aggregator currently has nearly 1,100 employees in its core ride-hailing business and directly competes with Uber, as per reports. Last month, Ola shut down Ola Cars, its used vehicle business, as well as Ola Dash, its quick-commerce business.
So far, Ola has shut down Ola Cafe, food panda, Ola Foods, and now Ola Dash. This comes after Ola’s Head of Talent Acquisition Shikharr Sood resigned about 2-3 weeks earlier, sources added. More than 32 senior executives of Ola have resigned in the last two years.
Besides, Ola has also ceased making investments in international markets such as the UK, Australia and New Zealand, another source reported. “Shedding cash burn heavy businesses like Dash and cutting employee costs will give them more operational runway and also show a profitable business if they want to IPO,” the second source was quoted as saying.
“With this clear focus, Ola has reassessed its priorities and decided to shut down Ola Dash- its quick commerce business. Ola will also be reorienting its Ola Cars business to focus more on strengthening the go-to-market strategy for Ola Electric,” a company spokesperson stated.
