Ahead of IPO, Ola announces Smart bikes, may also announce new line of business

Bhavish Aggarwal headed Ola Electric which has been making news thanks to its smart bikes and a Rs 3,000 crore IPO is likely to announce a new line of business.

Reports have emerged about Ola’s probable entry into the second hand used car market segment.

Nearly a fortnight ago, Ola had announced via its Facebook post that it was creating a separate business called Ola Cars to enable customers to sell their cars. The post read, “More Value, less hassle – selling your car made easy…”

On Thursday, a report quoted an unnamed official as confirming the plan. Startup activity tracking portal Entrackr too had reported a similar plan a few days back.

Ola has recently been marketing its Ola Electric bike aggressively. Besides social media, Ola app users too have been notified about the Ola Electric bike and reservations starting at Rs 499. On July 17, Aggarwal tweeted that Ola Electric had 100,000 plus reservations.

The date for the IPO has not been confirmed although a recovery post lockdown and having raised $500 million from Temasek and Plum Holdings is expected to boost valuation in the Red Herring Prospectus.