Updated: Ola denies report of co-founder Ankit Bhati movement from operational role

Update: Ola has sent us a detailed statement emphasising that Ankit Bhati is not moving from the the operational role. 

Previous report: Ride-hailing major Ola co-founder and CTO Ankit Bhati has reportedly moved out from the company's operational role.

Bhati, who has been heading technology and backend operations, has not been coming to the office and being involved in day-to-day operations for the last two months.

Fall out with CEO Bhavish Agarwal is said to be one of the main reasons for Bhati decision, according to a Moneycontrol report. Meanwhile, Ola has categorically denied the report.

For Ola Electric project, Bhati was not offered to own any stake except tiny portion through parent entity ANI technologies whereas Agarwal bought over 92% of Ola Electric for Rs 92, 500.

It's worth noting that Ola Electric turned Unicorn with funding from SoftBank, Tiger and Matrix just a few weeks after Agarwal's stake acquisition. This did not go well with Bhati and he started distancing himself from the day to day operation, added the report.

The report further said that the problems between both of the co-founders started at the time of foodpanda and Ola integrations. During that period, a few tech glitches that popped up and become a point of discussion, where Agarwal reportedly lose temper and did not behave well with Bhati.

Entrackr could not independently verify the report. Our queries, in regard to the development, to Bhati did not elicit any response till the publication of the report.

However, upon being contacted by us, Ola spokesperson has vehemently denied the MoneyControl report.

"We strongly deny any such development of Ankit Bhati moving on from Ola; this is completely false and an agenda engineered with vested interests. Ankit Bhati is a co-founder and is core to Ola and its journey. It is, therefore, a shame that baseless rumour mongering and speculation is being fanned," Ola said in a statement.

The move is said to be big loss for Ola leadership team. Especially, when the ride-hailing firm is looking to raise more funds for expansion. Its rival Uber has also been closing gap, in terms of market share, against Ola. Ola commands 55% whereas Uber enjoys a 45% market share, as per Vumonic Data labs.

* The post has been updated twice to carry the official statement and modify headline.