By Wise Founders Desk
Published: June 12, 2025
When Bhavish Aggarwal started Ola in 2010, few could have predicted that his venture would one day reshape how India commutes. From an idea sparked by a personal bad travel experience to building a billion-dollar company with ambitions beyond ride-hailing, Aggarwal’s journey is a study in resilience, reinvention, and relentless ambition.
🏁 It All Started with a Road Trip Gone Wrong
Born in 1985 in Ludhiana, Punjab, Bhavish graduated from IIT Bombay in 2008 with a degree in computer science. He landed a job at Microsoft Research, where he worked for two years. But his entrepreneurial itch kept growing.
The turning point came when Bhavish took a road trip from Bengaluru to Bandipur. He had booked a cab, but the driver demanded a last-minute price hike and abandoned the trip mid-way. That frustration triggered an idea: what if India had a reliable, tech-enabled cab service?
He returned with a mission—and launched Ola Cabs in 2010 with co-founder Ankit Bhati.
💡 Building Ola from the Ground Up
In the early days, Bhavish personally onboarded drivers, managed bookings, and even slept in Ola’s small Mumbai office. With little money and minimal infrastructure, they ran operations manually, creating a tech platform only after validating demand.
Ola soon differentiated itself with features like GPS tracking, cashless payments, and dynamic pricing, outpacing local taxi unions and even global rival Uber.
By 2014, Ola was present in major Indian metros and raised significant funding from Tiger Global, SoftBank, and Matrix Partners.
🚀 Ola Goes National — and Then Electric
Aggarwal’s vision went beyond just cabs. Under his leadership, Ola launched:
- Ola Auto – bringing autos into the app ecosystem
- Ola Bike – India’s two-wheeler ride-hailing model
- Ola Electric – the company’s biggest bet yet
In 2017, Bhavish spun off Ola Electric with a bold ambition: make India a global EV hub. The startup received government incentives and investor backing, eventually building the Ola FutureFactory—a fully automated EV production facility in Tamil Nadu.
Despite recent financial hiccups, Ola Electric continues to develop scooters, electric bikes, and battery solutions aimed at mass adoption.
🧠 The Relentless Visionary
Bhavish isn’t just an engineer or a CEO—he’s a futurist. Known for his demanding work ethic, deep tech instincts, and “build it in India” mindset, he has never shied away from risk.
He famously turned down a $1 billion merger deal from Uber India in 2017, stating:
“We don’t want to be the number two. We want to define the market, not just compete in it.”
Even during market downturns and controversies, Aggarwal has maintained his focus on scale, technology, and long-term impact.
🔍 Challenges and Criticism
- Driver dissatisfaction and fare disputes have plagued Ola’s brand image
- Ola Electric’s losses, falling stock, and recent layoffs show the bumpy nature of hardware businesses
- Public safety issues, like the 2025 Noida incident, put pressure on the company’s accountability framework
Yet, Bhavish continues to iterate and adapt, doubling down on automation, AI, and sustainability.
🌍 Beyond Business: Bhavish the Builder
- Personal Interests: Bhavish is known to be introverted, tech-obsessed, and often retreats to work on “deep focus” projects.
- Cultural Impact: Ola’s success gave rise to India’s entire gig mobility sector, empowering lakhs of drivers.
- Vision for India: Aggarwal believes India can lead the climate-tech revolution if it backs local entrepreneurs and hardware innovation.
📌 Lessons for Aspiring Founders
- Solve real problems you’ve experienced — they often lead to the best ideas.
- Think long-term — Ola Electric is a 10-year bet, not a quarterly game.
- Build despite chaos — regulation, competition, and criticism are constants.
- Own your market — Bhavish never gave up Indian ground to global rivals.
