Joy Bandekar of Goan origin, is the newly appointed Corporate President for new initiatives at Ola Cabs. Joy is a part of Ola’s core leadership team. He is a seasoned hand in the Internet industry, having spent the last ten years in various roles, with organizations like eBay Inc and Flipkart. VIKANT SAHAY explores what Ola Cabs has to offer to its customers
HERALD: How do you see your new role and what are your immediate challenges?
JOY BANDEKAR: Having spent 9.5 years in pure play e-commerce industry (6.5 years in eBay India and South East Asia and 3 years in India), I wanted to explore being part of an industry which is new, not just here in India, but even globally. With road sizes not increasing and the need for reliable mobility options growing especially in our country, there is immense potential to build a valuable growth driver for our economy. We have to do more with less – provide economical, faster, environment friendly access to mobility for a country of over a billion people.
HERALD: The recent measures taken by the Delhi authorities on odd and even number, will it affect your business?
JB: The government’s focus on building sustainable mobility in our cities is forward looking. We are committed to building for the needs of customers and the country at large. Government policies will go a long way in facilitating our laser focus solving for real problems out there as a business. With the need for mobility rising by leaps and bounds and the rationale to own a car dwindling with time, transportation is being used as a service like never before. The benefits in terms of reduced congestion, lower pollution levels, improved access and economic advantage of not owning personal cars are far reaching for our societies. We consider it our responsibility at Ola, to build sustainable mobility solutions for a country.
HERALD: What and how have you sorted out your payment gateways? Do you accept credit cards too?
JB: We never had an issue with payment gateways / payment mode for the customer. We follow the law of the land, including regulations on payments and authentication as recommended by the RBI. We have always been accepting cash and we pioneered the first prepaid wallet in India for cab rides back on October 2014, called Ola Money. Ola Money, powered by ZipCash, can now be used at a variety of merchants and can be topped up using credit, debit cards or net banking. Our commitment is to build for a seamless mobility experience for customers and payments will be a significant part of that experience.
HERALD: What are the new initiatives you will be taking to counter your competitors like Uber and Meru?
JB: We are focused on building for the needs of customers and driver-partners on the platform. We understand the local context and needs better and have built a product that suits these needs and we are constantly innovating on multiple fronts like technology, product, payments etc.
HERALD: How is Ola building technology for mobility?
JB: We are building technology that is transforming mobility in the country. We have a strong understanding of the local market we are building for and our product is built keeping our users- both customers and driver-partners at the centre of it. For customers, we have enabled a seamless in-app experience that will help get them mobility across a wide range of use cases within minutes. We have built to solve for constraints like lack of 3G connectivity with an app that is 2G optimized. For driver-partners, we have infused technology with local language support that is extremely user friendly and gives them the freedom to work like entrepreneurs.
HERALD: Are Ola’s interests also in the area of delivery and logistics with its capabilities?
JB: While we are an on-demand platform at large, we are focused on mobility. Ola Cafe, Ola Store and many experiments using the app, allow us to explore the nimbleness and the agility of what our technology can do. The focus remains on building mobility for this country of a billion people which is a genuine problem to solve for.
HERALD: What is Ola’s view on the future of transportation?
JB: We believe in creating a sustainable ecosystem for mobility. To power this, we have been heavily innovating on ways to build robust supply. While on one hand, we have been powering entrepreneurship in the driver ecosystem over the last five years, we have introduced multiple new categories like Ola Share, Ola Shuttle amongst others. We have also helped in powering up existing supply like auto-rickshaws, black and yellow taxis amongst others with technology improving their access to customers, utilisation and revenue opportunity like never before.
