Booking a cab online in Mumbai just got easier. Olacabs.com is a Mumbai based startup that provides rental cars and cab services in the city of Mumbai. What is unique about this startup is that they don’t own any cars of their own. Various car/tour operators list their inventory with Olacabs.com which can be booked online upto 12 hours in advance.
Started in August 2010 by two IIT Bombay Alumni, Ankit Bhati and Bhavish Aggarwal, the company currently has an inventory of over 100 cars. Based on a very transparent business model, the company makes a commission on every successful car booking. The prices on the website are the same that one gets with the cab operators directly. The customer has an option to rate the experience and the cab operator on successfully completing the journey. Each customer review along with a rating is displayed on the website. On booking, a customer has to make a 20% upfront payment of the total amount while the rest can be paid to the driver after completion of the journey. Courtesy reminders are sent via email and SMS 6 hours before the journey along with Driver’s phone number and vehicle registration number.
The company behind olacabs.com, ANI Technologies Pvt Ltd, was recently funded by the Indian Angel Network and Anupam Mittal, founder of Shaadi.com. The exact amount is confidential but it is believed to be between Rs. 40 lacs and Rs. 1 crore. The company aims to spend the money on hiring experienced people in operations and product development. They also plan to expand to other cities in the near future and increase their inventory to 1000 cars in the next 24 months.
Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati are IIT Bombay graduates. Bhavish has worked with Microsoft India for 2 years before quitting the job and starting Olacabs.com. Ankit Bhati has worked for a few startups before starting Olacabs.com
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