Indian Ride-Hailing Company Ola Is Coming To London

Ola, a ride-hailing company from India, said it’s going to be operational in London “in the coming weeks,” according to a report by TechCrunch.

The news comes in the wake of rival Uber’s license revocation in the city by Transport for London (TfL).

Ola has been entering different portions of the U.K. in the past year, and it’s already started signing up drivers. So far, the company has raised $3.5 billion, and it wants to get about 50,000 drivers in London.

The ride-hailing company secured a license from TfL earlier in the year, and it said it was ready to serve 7 million people throughout 27 British boroughs.

Ola plans on attracting drivers by offering “favorable commissions” to allow for drivers to hold onto “more of their earnings,” although it didn’t share specifics. Indian drivers with the company keep about 70 to 74 percent of a passenger fare, as well as earn “incentives.”

The head of Ola’s international operations, Simon Smith, said the company is “fully compliant” of all the necessary TfL regulations. He said, “we have had constructive conversations with the authorities, drivers, and local communities in London over the past months, and look forward to contributing towards solving mobility issues in innovative and meaningful ways.”

Ola is making sure that it differentiates itself from Uber by being extra vigilant when it comes to driver verification and tamping out fraud. The TfL took Uber’s license to operate away after it was found that 14,000 trips on the platform came from drivers who faked their identities. 

Ola said that it will have a facial recognition system for “continuous authentication” of its drivers and a “driver image verification against driving licence photographs.” The company also said that it would use “robust technology systems to ensure that only licensed drivers complaint with TfL requirements can operate on the platform.”