Ola Electric is planning to lay off around 400-500 people across the organisation in the coming weeks, as it wants to reign in operating costs ahead of the initial public offering (IPO), as per a report. The final number may change but the leadership is currently in the process of concluding the scale of layoffs expected across the organisation.
According to a report in The Economic Times that quoted sources, a section of the impacted employees may be replaced with new hirings at a relatively cheaper cost. Nevertheless, the headcount would shrink, the report added.
A few teams have already finalised the number of cuts, a person in the know told the financial daily. Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal has been pushing to reduce costs across all revenues, a source said.
At the time of filing its draft IPO papers in December, the company had said that it has 3,733 employees as of October 2023, with an employee attrition rate of 47.48 per cent in FY23. In April Ola Cabs had laid off around 200 employees. Ola Cabs’CEO Hemant Bakshi and CFO Kartik Gupta had also exited the company.
The group is aiming for profitability in both the units – cabs and electric vehicles – as they are in various stages of going public.
For the first quarter of FY24, Ola Electric reported a net loss of Rs 267 crore on operating revenue of Rs 1,243 crore. In FY23, Ola Electric posted a net loss of Rs 1,472 crore on operating revenue of Rs 2,631 crore.