And then there were three

Indian-owned ride-hailing operator Ola quietly closed its operations in the UK last month, six years after taking on Uber and Bolt as a global player.

Ola’s operations in Australia and New Zealand have also been shuttered, and the company said it was shifting its focus to its Indian domestic business ahead of an initial public offering.

An Ola spokesperson said it saw “immense opportunity for expansion in India,” where it operates in hundreds of cities. “With this clear focus, we’ve reassessed our priorities and have decided to shut down our overseas ride-hailing business in its current form in the UK, Australia and New Zealand,” the spokesperson added.

Ola struggled to gain a foothold in the UK, especially in London, where it was up against three global ride-hailing rivals, as well as the established taxi and private hire market. Uber is clear market leader, while Bolt has a strong presence as an alternative, and FreeNow has focused on black cabs to give it a USP.

Ola’s problems were compounded when TfL refused to renew its license in October 2020, deeming it “not fit and proper”. This was a major blow, coming at the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Ola had only launched in London in February 2020, but a TfL investigation revealed data anomalies within the Ola app, which led to unlicensed drivers and vehicles carrying out more than 1,000 trips on the platform, compromising public safety.

Ola was allowed to continue operating pending an appeal, but its business was badly hit by the pandemic, and sources say it has never recovered to the sort of levels projected at launch.

Ola claimed earlier this year to have 25,000 drivers registered on its platform in London, in addition to operations in 27 other UK towns and cities, including Birmingham, Cardiff, Coventry and Liverpool.

Helen Chapman, TfL’s director of licensing, regulation and charging, said in a statement in October 2020: “Our duty as a regulator is to ensure passenger safety. Through our investigations we discovered that flaws in Ola’s operating model have led to the use of unlicensed drivers and vehicles in more than 1,000 passenger trips, which may have put passenger safety at risk. We will closely scrutinise the company to ensure passengers’ safety is not compromised.”

Ola claimed that the data breach was a result of using different database conventions to TfL to track licensing for drivers and vehicles, and this meant Ola was not seeing licensing expirations come through on time. This resulted in a gap between the expiry of a driver’s licence and the issue of a new one. TfL flagged this up as a safety issue, claiming Ola was using drivers working temporarily without licences.

In an attempt to clean up the problem, Ola made two high-profile appointments in May 2021. Former EasyJet chairman Sir Mike Rake joined the Ola UK Board as non-executive Chairman, while former TfL officer Leon Daniels became an independent non-executive director. The appointments were designed to provide stronger oversight, corporate governance, and strategic counsel.

Ola started operations in the UK in 2018 and has expanded rapidly since, launching in London in February 2020. Between 2015 and 2018, the company raised $1.6 billion in funding for the overseas expansion. Ola was valued at $7.3bn in 2021.

At launch, Ola said its UK service would bring a “dynamic, responsible new service to the market”. Ola said senior managers had spent time speaking with local authorities in the regions where it plans to operate, “working with national governments and local authorities, to help solve transport mobility issues in innovative and meaningful ways”.

The company initially took10% commission from private hire vehicles, and 5% from black cabs, so drivers would take home a bigger portion of the fare than when taking jobs from ride-hailing rivals.

Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and chief executive of Ola, said: “We look forward to our continued engagement with policymakers and regulators as we expand and build a company embedded in the UK.”

Plans also included a scheme to develop electric cars and scooters in the UK. Announced with considerable fanfare in January 2022, Ola said it would build a so-called Future Foundry in Coventry, employing 200 people, at a cost of $100m. This turned out to be a design studio, headed by former Jaguar designer Wayne Burgess, designing scouters to be manufactured at Ola’s facility in Bengaluru, India. Burgess left the business in May 2024.

Ola’s future seems to be concentrating on the scooter business. Ola Electric, the electric two-wheeler manufacturing brand in India was spun out of Ola and plans to file for an initial public offering, which it hopes will raise $662m, according to paperwork it filed late last year.