Ankit Bhatia – The story of Ola cabs | Fusion - WeRIndia

Ankit Bhati, co-founder of Ola, was always driven by his love for two things: computer technology and adventure trips. Since he grew up in a middle-class family, computers were a luxury item for him.

The only way Ankit could access one was by going to the computer center of IIT Bombay, where he would spend most of his time.

Aside from computers, Ankit would also spend his free time going on trips with his friends, especially Bhavish Aggarwal, the other co-founder of Ola. Their shared love for computers and travel led them to create Ola, with its innovative Internet-based cab-booking method.

At first, Ola had very limited technology. Bhavish would meet potential cab operators in person and hire them on board, while Ankit would do the technological work behind the scenes.

The two of them began to set up a system, asking themselves questions about the problems they would face and then figuring out solutions to these problems together.

Ola faced several challenges at first, such as the company’s first headquarters in the Dreams Mall in Mumbai. The loud, noisy location was not ideal for the telephone call-based system of Ola, so they decided to shift their base to Bengaluru.

In the same year, Ola faced a second challenge: its entire website crashed due to table corruption. To retrieve the site’s data, the team had to replicate it and bring the server back up.

However, Ola recovered from these troubles quickly. The team settled in Bangalore and began their mobile venture with the Ola app.

They have since expanded their service into nine categories, and the company is one of the largest transportation network companies in India today.

Although Ola has faced several challenges, the company has managed to overcome all of them, and it has come out as a successful and convenient transportation method.

Image Reference: YourStory