Ola seeks to rope in top 100 firms with corporate offerings

App-based taxi aggregator Ola is in discussions with various public sector units (PSUs) for its 'corporate' offering as it looks to bring on board the top 100 companies in the country.

"Ola Corporate's strength lies in providing agile solutions which help organisations in designing and customising their travel policies while streamlining the entire process. We are in talks with many PSUs and by next year, we would have a long list of PSUs using our service," Ola head (corporate) Ankit Jain said. He, however, declined to comment on the names of the PSUs and the targeted number of state-run entities that it would partner.

"By next year, Ola intends to have the top 100 companies of the country as its clients. Small businesses and start-ups are also on our radar," Jain said.

Launched in January this year, Ola already offers its services to corporates like Airtel, Reliance ADAG, Larsen and Toubro, Godrej and Taj Hotels.

Using 'Corporate', organisations get benefits like centralised billing and customisation features that help them save up to 60 per cent on business travel. Ola claims that over 2 lakh corporate employees in more than 100 cities are already using its 'Corporate' offering.

Talking about the PSU segment, Jain said that many private companies/government organisations continue to follow the conventional route of booking, where they outsource their travel needs to be managed by a travel agency or facilitate reimbursement for the expenses incurred by employees.

"With corporate houses spending a considerable percentage of their annual expenditure on travelling requirements, there was an immediate need/scope for technology intervention in order to make this process seamless and thus increase productivity. With Ola Corporate, these entities have access to a wide range of mobility options at a fraction of the cost as against the existing corporate travel options," he said.

Besides, Ola and its US-based rival Uber has registered at the portal of government e-marketplace (GeM) for providing taxi services to government departments at special rates.

The GeM was launched last month for buying goods and services by central ministries and departments with a view to bringing transparency in government procurement, which is estimated at Rs10,000 crore a year.

According to an official, the government will be able to save huge money as currently departments shell out as much as Rs40,000 for one taxi per month.