Uber Rival Ola Enters Corporate Travel Arena

Corporate travel caught headlines last year thanks to a surge in venture capital for innovators in the travel and expense management arena, as well as a rise in the use of on-demand travel services, like Uber, for business travelers.

India is now a main stage in this sector thanks to the launch on Monday (Jan. 11) of Ola Corporate. Ola provides consumers with an online car rental and taxi booking service, a top rival to Uber in the country.

[bctt tweet=”India is now a main stage in the corporate travel market.”]

Now, Ola is providing a service targeted towards the business traveler on the heels of Uber’s 2014 debut of Uber for Business. According to reports, Ola Corporate provides business users with the same digital ride-booking services as its flagship platform, but also provides paperless billing services to streamline the expense management process. Corporate managers can upload customized ride policies to ensure employees stay aligned with employer rules, reports add.

“With ‘Ola Corporate,’ we are bringing the inherent benefits of Ola’s technology platform to simplify the way executives travel for business, at the click of a button on their Ola app,” said Ola COO Pranay Jivrajka in a statement. “The corporate dashboard allows for improved efficiency and productivity for businesses, taking away the hassle of scheduling pickups and cumbersome billing and payment processes.”

The service is now live across 102 cities in India, reports said. Managers can also track employee business trips, as well as their expenses. The app will include a new option, Corporate Ride, to confirm a booking with an employee, who must be verified by employers to use the tool.

Ola said that rides will cost workers the same as its B2C service but touts that businesses can save as much as 60 percent by using the service.

The company raised $500 million in a fundraising round from investors in November, according to reports. SoftBank and Falcon Edge Capital were among the backers.