Ride-hailing giant Ola launched its services in Coventry and Warwick, the eighth and ninth cities in the UK. The services were launched after local councils granted the company with both taxi and private hire licenses. The Indian ride-hailing service has been on an expansion spree and is tapping into new markets like the UK and Australia. Now, it has expanded its service to two more cities in the United Kingdom, bringing its total availability to nine cities in the country.
“We are thrilled to expand our service to Coventry and Warwick, having launched in Birmingham earlier this year,” Alok Pandya, Ola’s Regional Manager for the West Midlands, Coventry and Warwick, said in a statement. “We feel immensely proud that our drivers have already provided over one million rides across the UK.”
Passengers have taken more than one million rides across the UK through Ola's ride-hailing app, since the company launched in Cardiff in August 2018, according to the company. The new services go live after the company expanded its operations by launching in South West England. Ola is tapping into western markets as rival Uber faces operational and political trouble in these markets. Apart from the UK, Ola has also expanded to Australia and the New Zealand. Ola’s expansion into western market comes amidst its fundraising from venture capitalists.
Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal invested in two separate rounds in the ride-sharing service. According to CrunchBase, it has raised a total of $3.8 billion in funding over 24 rounds. The latest funding was raised on September 23, 2019 in the form of a Series J round. Ola has also acquired Pikup.ai, an AI-based startup from Bengaluru. The company is also looking to expand its bike service to 150 India cities this year and has plans to invest $500 million in self-driving car service.
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