New Delhi: Ride-hailing platform Ola has started laying off 500 of its nearly 1,100-strong workforce, as it aims to cut costs amid a challenging funding environment.
According to sources, the SoftBank-backed company has also deferred the valuation as it aims to “lean and consolidate teams” to “retain strong profitability”. Read more: Twitter vs Elon Musk: Tesla chief’s version on merger agreement breach
In an internal communication on communications platform Slack, as first spotted by The Economic Times, Balachander N, who heads HR, said that “we understand the concern surrounding Driven (Ola’s evaluation program)”. . Read More: Ashneer Grover Starts Working on Another Startup, Founds a New Company
“As you may be aware by now, we are working on restructuring some of our businesses and will follow this up with Driven,” read the internal communication.
As the layoffs begin, Shikhar Sood, the head of talent acquisition at Ola and in charge of talent acquisition for the entire Ola Group, has resigned from his position.
His resignation comes amid several resignations by top officials.
As CNBC reports, several former executives said that “product complaints, unit shutdowns and the ‘act fast, think later’ culture have led to Ola’s problems lately.”
Last month, Ola spun off its old vehicle business Ola Cars as well as Ola Dash, its instant-commerce business.
The company discontinued Ola Cars within a year of its launch, as it focuses on its electric two-wheeler and electric car vertical.
Ola has so far discontinued Ola Cafe, Food Panda, Ola Foods and now Ola Dash.
Meanwhile, Ola Electric, which is facing a government probe into battery fires along with other EV players, has also seen some high-profile exits in recent months.
Earlier this week, Yashwant Kumar, senior director and business head of charging networks at the company, decided to go ahead.