Ola, the taxi-hailing company taking on Uber in India, has shuttered TaxiForSure (TFS), a competitor it spent $200 million to acquire in 2015.
According to a report, Ola confirmed it shut down the company, letting go somehwere between 300 and 700 employees as a result. When TaxiForSure was acquired by Ola, it had a workforce of around 1,700. But since the acquisition, the company’s CEO and a lot of employees have left. Ola wouldn’t disclose how many staff were let go in the shutdown of the service, which was geared toward budget rides, but the company did say it will offer benefits for the positions that were eliminated.
“With all TaxiForSure driver-partners and customers coming on board the Ola app, the integration is now complete,” Ola said in a statement. “As part of this integration over the last 18 months, we have achieved immense operational efficiencies that have resulted in an improved experience for customers and driver-partners alike. In the course of the integration, we have absorbed as many TFS employees for open roles in Ola to support our growth.”
When Ola purchased TaxiForSure, it was expected the service would be integrated into Ola’s service, but the company never revealed its plans publicly. The report noted another motive for shutting down the service is to increase its focus and attention on taking on Uber in the Indian marketplace. The company could be looking at its own operations and trying to get leaner to be better able to compete against Uber, which has been a dominant force in the ride-hailing app market and has set its sights on India. Despite Uber’s size and growing business, Ola is still currently holding its own in India, with the report noting that most data points show Ola is ahead of Uber in India.
