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Bhavish Aggarwal
Ola!
Bhavish Aggarwal is an Indian entrepreneur best known as the Co-Founder and CEO of Ola Cabs, a leading ride-hailing service in India. He has played a pivotal role in transforming urban transportation in the country since the company's inception in September 2010.
Professional Background
- Ola Cabs: Aggarwal co-founded Ola in 2010, which has grown to become one of India's largest ride-sharing platforms, offering various services including ride-hailing, electric vehicle initiatives, and food delivery.
- Microsoft Research India: Prior to his entrepreneurial journey, he worked as an Assistant Researcher at Microsoft Research India from July 2008 to July 2010, and had a brief stint as a Research Intern in 2007.
Contributions and Vision
Aggarwal is recognized for his innovative approach to business and technology. Under his leadership, Ola has expanded its services beyond traditional taxi services to include electric vehicles through Ola Electric, aiming to promote sustainable transportation solutions in India. His vision includes significant advancements in the electric vehicle sector, reflecting his commitment to environmental sustainability.
Online Presence
Aggarwal is active on LinkedIn, where he engages with a professional community of over 500 connections. His posts often highlight developments within Ola and the broader transportation industry, including discussions on electric vehicle manufacturing in India.12
Overall, Bhavish Aggarwal's leadership at Ola has not only reshaped the transportation landscape in India but also positioned him as a significant figure in the push towards sustainable mobility solutions.
Highlights
All the best to my dear friend @vikramsampath for his new book on Tipu Sultan! Can’t wait to read it! https://t.co/hW0gsCPZzQ
Ratan Tata, my personal hero
I’m at a loss with Ratan Tata Sir’s passing. His loss feels so personal because it is for me. He was my hero growing up, like for so many others. I consider myself blessed to have gotten the opportunity to know my personal hero deeply over the last decade. Meeting and interacting with him many times and each time, learning lessons for life.
My relationship with Mr. Tata started in 2008. I was graduating from IIT Bombay and he was the guest speaker at our convocation. I was a young kid but his words that day stayed with me - to serve one’s country.
In 2015, I got the chance to meet Mr Tata and he decided to invest in Ola. But my interactions with him didn’t end there. They had just begun! Mr Tata was like no other business leader I have ever met. He took personal interest in my journey. And in every interaction there was grace, humility, curiosity and a world of learning for me. In 2016, I invited him to come to Bengaluru and address my whole company. I thought a person of his stature would politely decline but he actually took a full day out, flew to Bengaluru and spent the entire day with my team and company!
The one story I’d like to share today is his key role in the founding of my second company Ola Electric. One day in 2017 I got a call from him asking me to come to Mumbai. He just said - “Bhavish I want to take you somewhere and show you something exciting”. We flew in his plane to Coimbatore to see his personal project making electric vehicles out of the Tata Nano! He was so passionate and excited about electric vehicles. He even drove me in one on a test track and then pointed out such detailed improvements to the engineers. That was the day Ola electric really got started - as he ignited the passion for EVs and cars in me! After that, almost every product that we conceptualised and designed (some of which are not yet released) I would go and show him the concepts and he would patiently sit with me and ideate and give feedback.
His love for animals and dogs also grew on me. In fact, such was his love for dogs that many times when I went to his office, I would notice street dogs proudly sitting right there next to him inside his office! With this inspiration, we decided to open Ola offices and factories to stray dogs and today we have almost 30 of them living in our facilities.
The last time I met him was a year ago to share the news of Ola Electric’s IPO and he as usual was gracious and curious. He was frail but his enthusiasm for cars was as high as ever, and his encouragement for me was as strong as ever.
As I reflect on his legacy today, he has set a bar so high for all of us. And as I walk on my journey, make mistakes and learn from them, I feel so incredibly blessed to have seen such an amazing man from up close, and gotten a chance to see the ideal to strive for.
I will deeply miss him. India will deeply miss him. And there will be no one like him again.
Om Shanti🙏🏼
