Ola to hire 10,000 people for used-car platform

India-based mobility platform Ola plans to hire 10,000 new people as it eyes US$2 billion in gross merchandise value for its vehicle commerce platform over the next 12 months.

Photo credit: khongkitwiriyachan / 123RF.

According to the SoftBank-backed company, Ola Cars has already sold 5,000 pre-owned cars in its first full month of operations.

Over the next two months, Ola Cars will be operational in 30 cities and expand to 100 cities by 2022. As a digital-first platform, it offers services such as doorstep test drive, and accepts returns of a purchased vehicle within seven days – no questions asked.

Apart from cars, the company plans to sell two-wheelers on the platform, Ola Cars CEO Arun Sirdeshmukh, previously told Tech in Asia.

“Ola is available as a brand across several other markets apart from India. We are keen to serve customers in those markets as well,” he added. The ride-hailer, which is eyeing an initial public offering by 2022, is present in countries such as the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

Ola is also setting up service centers across India for better customer experience. The company is looking to sell new vehicles from other automotive brands as well.

India’s used-car market has seen funding acceleration in recent months, with companies such as Cars24, Droom, and Spinny securing investments from Tiger Global, Tencent, and SoftBank, among others.

In July, Droom raised the first tranche of its US$200 million pre-IPO funding round, driving its way into the unicorn club at a US$1.2 billion valuation. Spinny also landed US$100 million in a round led by Tiger Global during the same month.

In September, Cars24 closed a US$450 million round of funding that almost doubled its valuation to US$1.84 billion.

See also: Carsome and Carro: A neck-and-neck race to transform how people buy cars

Girnar Software, which runs CarDekho, also banked US$250 million at a valuation of about $1.2 billion, according to a Livemint report.