Cab aggregator Ola fires 200 employees from verticals, calls it a ‘restructuring’ exercise

Ola, one of the biggest cab aggregators based in Bangalore, has started the process of firing 200 employees from its various verticals, like Ola Financial Services, Ola Cabs and Ola Electric, as part of the company’s "restructuring" exercise. The company had first announced the layoffs in September last year which is taking place across the teams.

While speaking to the news agency IANS, the company’s representative said that it is "centralising operations and is undertaking a restructuring exercise to minimise redundancy and build a strong lateral structure that strengthens relevant roles and functions".

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The employees being fired are 10 per cent of the company’s 2,000 engineer workforce and are being laid off "as part of a larger restructuring exercise towards its electric dream".

"Currently, the company has around 2,000 engineers and aims to increase its engineering talent pool to 5,000 over the next 18 months," the ride-hailing company stated.

The company, which is run by Bhavish Aggarwal, has around 1,100 employees as part of its main ride-hailing business.

Restructuring exercises had earlier impacted employees across the business, marketing, sales, operations, product, supply and tech verticals at the company and resulted in the layoffof almost 500 employees that "were a result of restructuring in the cars and dash businesses".

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Last year, the ride-booking platform closed its vehicle business, Ola Cars along with Ola Dash, which was a quick-commerce business, as the focus of the company was shifted back to car verticals and electric two-wheeler.

Ola stated that plans are underway to hire 5,000 engineers as it works on strengthening capabilities across manufacturing, battery, autonomous streams, vehicle and cell.

(With inputs from agencies)