Indian ride-hailing company Ola on Tuesday announced its plans to start its services in the United Kingdom. In a statement, the company said it has obtained licences to operate in South Wales and Greater Manchester, and will commence its operations in South Wales “within the next month”.
The company said it is “working with local authorities across the UK to expand nationwide by end of 2018”.
This is the third overseas market that Ola has ventured into. It began services in Bangladesh in 2017 and in Australia in February this year. The company operates in seven major cities in Australia.
In the UK, Ola will offer private vehicles for hire as well as black cabs on its platform, the statement said, adding that it will add more transportation options in the future.
Bhavish Aggarwal, Ola co-founder and chief executive officer, said the Bengaluru-based company would look forward to a “continued engagement with policymakers and regulators as we expand across the country and build a company embedded in the UK”.
Ola will intensity its rivalry with ride-hailing giant Uber, which says it operates in more than 40 towns and cities across the UK.
In June, Uber won a probationary licence to operate in London after the city’s transport regulator refused to renew it nine months ago. It claimed that the company showed a “lack of corporate responsibility” on “issues that have potential public safety and security implications”. A court later said the changes made by the company’s London unit in its policies after losing the licence were sufficient for it to be considered “fit and proper” to operate. The probationary licence allows the taxi-hailing service to operate in London for 15 months.
Both Ola and Uber are backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group and are direct competitors in India. Neil Shah, research director at consultancy Counterpoint Research, told Reuters that Ola is now looking at high-booking markets to make profits. This is because India has a fewer number of loyal consumers and the demand for low-cost is more, which makes competition intense. “This could put pressure on Uber and cause them to possibly merge in India,” he said.
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