How Bhavish Agarwal built OLa from the bitter experience of weekend travel

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Bhavish Aggarwal is a renowned Indian entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and CEO of Ola, as well as the founder of Ola Electric and Ola Krutrim, an AI company. His journey is a story of vision, perseverance, and a drive to redefine transportation and technology in India. Early Life and Education Bhavish Aggarwal was born on August 28, 1985, in Ludhiana, Punjab, into a middle-class Punjabi family that greatly valued education. He completed his schooling in Punjab before moving to Mumbai to attend the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.

There, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering in 2008, sharpening his technical skills and developing an entrepreneurial mindset. Early Career After graduating, Bhavish began his career as a research intern at Microsoft Research India and was soon promoted to Assistant Researcher. He filed two patents and published three papers in international journals while at Microsoft. However, he soon felt the urge to build something of his own and left the company in 2010.

The idea for Ola was sparked by a personal incident—during a road trip from Bangalore to Bandipur, Bhavish had a negative experience with a taxi driver, which made him realise the need for a reliable cab service in India. This incident motivated him to address a common issue in Indian transportation: trust and convenience.

Building Ola Cabs. In January 2011, Bhavish partnered with his friend Ankit Bhati and started Ola Cabs in Bengaluru. Initially, Ola worked as an aggregator of taxi services, connecting drivers with customers through a technology-driven platform. Under Bhavish's leadership, Ola rapidly expanded, becoming India’s largest ride-hailing company. Ola later diversified, entering the electric vehicle market with Ola Electric, aiming to build India's EV ecosystem.

In 2024, he also founded Ola Krutrim, which quickly became the country’s first AI unicorn. Impact and Recognition Bhavish Aggarwal’s innovative contributions have transformed how Indians travel, making transportation more reliable and accessible. He was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2018 and is recognised as one of the world’s youngest self-made billionaires, with a net worth estimated at $2.3 billion.

Personal Traits and Vision Bhavish is known for his dedication, work ethic, and vision to harness technology for large-scale transformation. He is passionate about empowering not just consumers but also drivers by fostering entrepreneurship among them.

His leadership continues to drive Ola's push into new business verticals, including electric mobility and artificial intelligence. Bhavish Aggarwal’s story is an inspiration, demonstrating how vision and perseverance can lead to groundbreaking change in an entire industry

Ola was founded in December 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, both graduates of IIT Bombay. The idea originated after Bhavish experienced a negative car rental encounter, motivating him to create a reliable and tech-driven cab service that could address issues prevalent in India's fragmented urban transport system. How Ola The company started as Olatrip.com, a website offering trip packages, but quickly pivoted to a taxi aggregation service known as Ola Cabs.

Operating initially from a small flat in Powai, Mumbai, Bhavish and Ankit worked with limited resources, personally promoting their service and striving to get just 100 rides a day during their initial period.

Ola entered an unorganised market dominated by auto-rickshaws and taxi operators, where service quality was inconsistent and technology adoption was low. Ola’s technology-first approach, combined with market empathy and execution, helped pioneer ride-hailing as a mainstream concept in India.

Early Fundraising DetailsOla’s earliest investor was Zishaan Hayath, a fellow IIT graduate, followed by angel investors Rehan Yar Khan (Orios Venture Partners) and Anupam Mittal (Shaadi.com), who invested about 5 million rupees (approx. $58,600). This grassroots effort attracted Tiger Global’s Lee Fixel, who was seeking the next Uber in India. Tiger Global invested about $4 million, followed by another $20 million the next year.

The breakthrough came when SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son recognised Ola’s potential and invested $210 million in 2014, which dramatically accelerated Ola’s growth and ability to compete against Uber. Ola has, over the years, raised a total of approximately $5 billion through multiple funding rounds. These investments enabled Ola to rapidly expand citywise, develop its mobile app, and transform into India’s leading mobility platform

Bhavish Aggarwal played a visionary and hands-on role in launching Ola Electric, recognising early on that electric vehicles (EVs) were essential for India’s sustainable transportation future. In 2017, he spearheaded Ola Electric as a subsidiary of Ola Cabs, starting with pilot programs that included deploying electric cabs, buses, and rickshaws in Nagpur and setting up EV charging infrastructure.

Aggarwal drove key strategic decisions, such as spinning off Ola Electric as a separate entity in 2018 by acquiring a controlling stake. He actively led fundraising efforts, securing major investments from Tiger Global, Matrix India, Ratan Tata, and SoftBank—raising hundreds of millions in capital to scale the business rapidly. Under his leadership, Ola Electric launched its own manufacturing of electric scooters and built the world’s largest two-wheeler factory, emphasising innovation, affordability, and a focus on mass adoption.

His relentless drive toward electrifying urban mobility, backed by technological innovation and resource mobilisation, placed Ola Electric at the forefront of India’s EV revolution. Aggarwal continues to lead the company as CEO, steering its vision for sustainable, large-scale mobility solutions

As of 2025, Bhavish Aggarwal's net worth is estimated to be between $1.4 billion and $2.6 billion (approximately ₹11,700 crore to ₹21,000 crore). His wealth primarily comes from his significant ownership stakes in Ola Cabs, Ola Electric—which went public in August 2024 with a valuation close to $7 billion—and his AI venture, Krutrim.

Ola Electric’s stock performance and the company's expanding market presence have been major contributors to his rising net worth. Various reports put his net worth around $1.9 billion (₹16,000 crore) as of mid-2025, with some sources estimating it as high as $2.6 billion (₹21,000 crore). Bhavish Aggarwal is recognised as one of the youngest self-made billionaires in the world due to his entrepreneurial success in ride-sharing, electric vehicles, and technology innovation