Ola is an Indian ridesharing company with zero experience in manufacturing, complex supply chains, battery technology, consumer products, mobility, or electric vehicles (EVs) in general. Ola recently delivered its first 100 electric scooters in what is arguably the world's leading EV market.

　Ola's ambitions in the Indian EV market are quite grand. It plans to sell 2 million electric scooters within a year in a country that currently has only 121,900 electric vehicles. In reality, most of these EVs are scooters, but according to the Delhi-based think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water, the number of EVs being sold has fallen far below India's car sales of 20 million a year. The total number is only 1.66%.

　However, Mr. Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder and CEO of Ola, is even more enthusiastic. He said the company's newest 500-acre factory in Tamil Nadu will be able to produce 10 million electric scooters a year by 2022, and then electric It is said that there is a far-reaching plan to start the development of automobiles.

　It may seem like the biggest magic in the history of the company, but it was the magical power of money that created such a feat in its truest sense. For some time, there has been a certain trend in the entrepreneurial movement that draws capital from around the world. Historically, a long-standing passion for products and true innovation has rarely been the key to success in attracting funding from global funds like SoftBank and Tiger Capital.

　What was more important than that was to use the abundant cash stock to raise a huge amount of funds, use it in the nascent market, and forcibly build an advantage in the market. Even a string of losses on the income statement is seen as an unavoidable loss in order to win the honor of going public.

　Walmart's acquisition of Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart is one such example of success. Flipkart has been a cash cow for its founders, despite being unprofitable for over a decade when it was eventually acquired for $16 billion.

　Mr. Agarwal has followed exactly the same path as Flipkart by imitating Uber's ride-sharing model. However, just as he was piling up expenses and losses like everyone else, the corona crisis blocked Ola's route. In 2020, Ola was forced to lay off 1,400 people, more than 33% of its total workforce.

　Nevertheless, Ola's ride-sharing business has been successful, and Ola Electric, a group company that develops and sells electric motorcycles, is reportedly still hiring.

　It seems that Ola's dream of an electric car began several years before the corona crisis. Ola has tried and failed to electrify its entire fleet of 10,000 vehicles. Lack of charging infrastructure had something to do with it, Ola once said, but there was also the general price issue. Ultimately, electric cars were too expensive for drivers.

　Nevertheless, Ola Electric has become a unicorn company, a company valued at over $1 billion (approximately 114 billion yen), through its new-age economic strategy. Moreover, it was only two years after he stumbled at the beginning. Aggarwal seems like a cool but determined CEO, and like Flipkart's Sachin Bansal, he's poised to stay at the helm until victory day comes.