Ola rejig part 3: Teams restructured to focus solely on Ola Electric

Ola’s focus has been in a constant churn for the last year and consequently, so has been the case around the roles designated to the people and overall work environment. Earlier the changes were centered around foodpanda, now this privilege has been passed on to Ola Electric.

Similar to the two rejigs that took place last year, the company has moved around a part of its top management teams to meet the set deadlines under long term plan for Ola Electric.

Ankit Jain, VP and Head of Ola Play, has been assigned a new title - Co-Founder of Ola Electric Mobility. The other Co-Founder is Anand Shah, was also SVP of Strategic Initiatives at Ola prior to the change. Sanatan Kaul, former Sr Project Manager at foodpanda, has become Sales Manager at Ola Electric.

If we look at the list of employees under Ola Electric on LinkedIn, a large number constitutes of people who have been moved Ola to Electric in Jan to April duration, only a few new hires have come from outside. Some have been shifted from foodpanda to Electric, similar to the above-quoted example.

One employee even joined from Ather Energy.

The plan here is to solely focus on electric and roll out the first set of mass-produced EVs and the associated infrastructure within a tight deadline of three years. The Advanced Technology Center that the company recently set up in the USA will be the site for research and development in the EV segment to find innovative electric mobility solutions.

And with the collaborations and partnerships with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and EV makers, the company will bring its unique offering on roads.

We already know that the company is hiring 150 top-notch professionals, engineers, to design practical EV solutions and power up the R&D at the Palo Alto-based ATC. To manage and execute these plans within the set timeline, the firm is indulging in the rejig it feels is necessary to turn bullish on the EV front and let other businesses take a back seat.

Even the recent fundings have also been towards the growth of Ola Electric Mobility. In fact, this subsidiary of ANI Technologies became a unicorn with the latest $250 million worth fund infusion by SoftBank.

This reshuffling of teams has been happening for the past few weeks and as per Business Standard’s sources, it is going to continue for some more time.

Of course, this is not the first time something like this is happening in Ola offices. After the company had acquired foodpanda in 2017, the story was the same - reshuffling teams to focus on the food delivery business while the core and related operations took a backseat.

Now, comes yet another reshuffle which will carry on for long. 

It is no surprise that amidst all this, a major chunk of Ola’s top to mid-management teams called quits on the company in the last one year. Several top execs including Vishal Kaul, Susheel Balakrishnan, Natasha Daly, and Akshay Alladi left the firm during the year.