Ola Electric CMO, Varun Dubey quits amidst slew of fresh exits

Ola Electric’s Chief Marketing Officer( CMO), Varun Dubey has quit the company days after its Chief Technology Officer, Dinesh Radhakrishnan made an exit.  
 
An Ola Spokesperson told Business Today that Dubey has moved on from the company after citing personal reasons. Ola Cars CEO, Arun Siredeshmukh too, left recently.
   
The fresh spate of exits came at a time when Ola’s electric scooters started facing criticism for manufacturing and design issues despite the company having assured the customers of addressing the concerns.
 
Dubey, meanwhile had joined Ola Electric in December 2019 heading the marketing division for Ola Financial and later was appointed as Chief Marketing Officer for (CMO) Ola Electric in October 2020 at a time when the company CEO, Bhavish Aggarwal laid out ambitious plans to build a two-wheeler future factory for making Ola Electric scooters. Ola Electric is also in process of setting up a new manufacturing facility for four-wheelers .
 
Commenting on the Ola Cars CEO exit, the company spokesperson said, “Our group CFO Arun Kumar GR now has an expanded role managing day to day operations. This includes overseeing the GTM function and therefore Arun Sirdeshmukh who was heading GTM has now had to leave. Both his roles (GTM as well as Ola Cars) will now be under Arun Kumar GR as part of his expanded role.”
 
SoftBank backed Ola Electric is also one of the companies which has won the bid under the Rs 18,100 crore production-linked incentive schemes by the government for ‘Advanced Chemical Cell Battery Storage’ to boost EV manufacturing capabilities within the country.
 
In January this year, Ola Electric has raised $200 million from a clutch of investors including Tekne Private Ventures, Alpine Opportunity Fund, Edelweiss at $3 billon valuation. The company has raised a cumulative funding of $800 million till now.
 
The Ola group in April elevated CFOGR Arun Kumar who would assist CEO, Bhavish Aggarwal in day-to-day operations. Sources said that Aggarwal was focussed on Ola Electric operations especially design and manufacturing whereas Kumar would oversee mobility, finances , food delivery and other divisions.