Ola forays in scooter sharing biz, to invest $100 million in Vogo  

India's leading ride-hailing platform Ola Cab's today announced that it will invest around $100 million (Rs 712 crore) in Vogo, a domestic scooter sharing network, for short-haul commute, as part of its strategic partnership.

As part of this partnership, Ola will boost Vogo’s supply by investing in 100,000 scooters on the Vogo platform. This infusion will provide Vogo a strategic supply advantage without having to incur significant capital expenditure, and additionally, Vogo’s offerings will soon be available for over 150 million Ola customers, directly from the app. 

Ola has also invested in Vogo as part of the company’s Series A fundraising which saw participation from Matrix Partners India and Stellaris Venture Partners.

Vogo is a point-to-point dockless scooter sharing company, currently present in Bangalore and Hyderabad, and claims to have served over 20 million kilometres on its platform. The scooters on the platform come with an IoT device that allows the customer to access the key via OTP (One time password); this eliminates the need for human intervention and offers consumers a seamless experience. The company says scooter sharing addresses the twin challenges of pollution and congestion, while also providing a credible alternative to bridge India’s micro mobility needs.

Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO, Ola said “Ola is committed to building a robust mobility ecosystem in India, creating a deep impact on livelihoods and how citizens get around. Our investment in Vogo will help build a smart multi-modal network for first-last mile connectivity in the country. Vogo’s automated scooter-sharing platform, backed by Ola’s expertise in this space can help transform our cities. Together, we are thrilled to be at the forefront of India’s rapidly growing micro-mobility market.”

Anand Ayyadurai, founder and CEO, Vogo said, “Vogo has seen rapid growth in the last five months, growing over 10x in scale. We are thrilled to have Ola join us on this journey and help turbo-charge our growth by providing us access to strategic and capital efficient supply as well as access to millions of customers on its platform in the time to come. Ola’s deep understanding of mobility and their investment to power additional supply are extremely valuable to Vogo. As we enter into our next phase of growth, we look forward to executing our synergistic vision of the future: smart and sustainable mobility for all.” 

He further added, “India presents a unique, untapped opportunity for scooter-sharing. With the backing of right partners, innovative solutions and nuanced market understanding, we are well-positioned to capitalise on this opportunity and create value for all.”