Homegrown cab aggregator Ola is shutting down its Shuttle service ‘Ola Shuttle’ as it is seen demand coming almost entirely from its cabs and auto rickshaw segments, sources say. It is currently in the process of scaling down its Ola Shuttle service in various cities including Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
Interestingly, this comes on the back on Ola raising massive funding of over a billion dollar that it raised from Tencent, SoftBank and others.
When contacted, Ola confirmed the development adding that it is a part of its portfolio rebalancing. "Over the years, there has been an evolution in the daily commuting needs of customers. In response, Ola has decided to rebalance its mobility portfolio. Our plan is to further strengthen a range of other in-city commuting alternatives for added customer convenience. The plan includes expansion and focus on new and emerging categories like Autos, Share, and opportunities such as electric vehicles and advanced in-vehicle technologies. The mentioned offerings are also in line to make our business more customer centric, sustainable and environment-friendly,” a company spokesperson said.
Ola launched its shuttle service in September 2015 with a fleet of 500 shuttles and eventually expanded to Kolkata, Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Jaipur, Chennai and Guwahati.
Post this, Ola is likely to remain focused on cabs and autos, as it sees most demand coming from there.
According to a VCCircle report, Ola informed its bus operators that services will be terminated post February 2 and that their final settlements will be completed by February 17.
However, shuttle services have seen a demand over the past few years thanks to rapid urbanization and rising traffic woes. This led to several startups coming up in the space such as Shuttl, ZipGo, Commut, Easycommute and SuperShuttle.
Interestingly, there were reports last year that Uber may look to soon introduce a similar service, where it would provide its users 13-seater shuttles to take on Ola. This, however, never materialized into an actual launch.
Ola has been growing rapidly after raising massive funds. It recently made an international foray by launching its services in Australia. It also entered the food delivery business with the acquisition of FoodPanda.