Ride hailing major Ola’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Swayam Saurabh and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Gaurav Porwal are all set to leave the company. According to Money Control, both high profile executives resigned from their posts last week. Ola has so far not officially commented on this news report.
The exit of top executives has come at a time when Ola is gearing up for its much anticipated IPO. The company had raised $500 Mn in a pre-IPO funding round barely three months back.
The frequent exits of top executives has apparently became a chronic problem for Ola. The Mumbai based company over the last one year has seen the exit slew of top executives. This included Ola’s founding member Pranay Jivrajka, Ola Electric’s co-founders Ankit Jain & Anand Shah, Ola Financial Services CEO Nitin Gupta and Ola’s Chief Business Officer Sanjay Bhan.
While high attrition rate is a common problem in the start up industry, Ola’s employee churn comes across more sharp and bit abnormal. More so when Ola is going through crucial juncture amid its IPO preparations and the aggressive expansion of Ola electric.
Grapevines and sources privy to the matter are citing Ola’s aggressive work culture as the main reason for the recent exit of top executives. ‘Aggressive work culture’ is probably mild way of saying that the ride-hailing major is plagued by toxic work culture. However, this fact has so far not been confirmed.
Only time will say how the latest exit will impact company’s IPO prospect and its ability to raise more funds in the ongoing pre-IPO funding round.
I clearly remember last year when Ola Electric’s co-founders Ankit Jain & Anand Shah resigned last year, many started claiming that Ola Electric is Bhavesh Agrawal’s vanity project. Some had even questioned Ola Electric’s unicorn status. But in the midst of all these problems, Agrawal chose to put a brave face and carried out a massive expansion of Ola Electric. In fact, the company had launched its first electric scooter S1 on 15th August.