BENGALURU: SoftBank Group-backed Indian ride-hailing company Ola will cut 1,400 jobs, or about 35per cent of its workforce, as it navigates a strict coronavirus lockdown that has halted 95per cent of its business, company chief Bhavish Aggarwal told employees on Wednesday.
Launched a decade ago in Mumbai, Ola has been fighting for dominance with Uber in dozens of Indian cities. It also has operations in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, partnering with around 2.5 million drivers.Both ride-hailing companies have been hammered by a two-month-long lockdown that has kept 1.3 billion Indians indoors and halted app-based cabs and rickshaws. Local media reports said Uber has cut 700 of its estimated 2,000-2,500 employees.
The U.S. firm, which has sold both its Chinese and South-East Asia businesses to local rivals, on Monday made more job cuts that meant it has reduced staffing by more than a third globally since the start of the crisis."The prognosis ahead for our business is very unclear and uncertain. It is going to take a long time for people to go out and about like before," Bhavish Aggarwal, Ola's co-founder and CEO, said in a note to employees on the company's blog.
Ola joins a list of local start-ups, including the local franchise of another SoftBank-backed venture, WeWork, restaurant aggregator Zomato and food delivery service Swiggy that have laid off employees in recent weeks. Analysts say many were ripe for stripping down after feasting on a boom in private equity funding seeking to cash in on India's growing middle class and fast-growing cities.
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