Two top executives quit Ola Electric, two more exits likely: Report

Two senior-level executives at Ola Electric will exit the EV company, said a report on Saturday. Slokarth Dash, head of planning and strategy, and Saurabh Sharda, head of partnership and corporate affairs, have resigned from the company, Mint reported on Saturday. 

Both Dash and Sharda are old hands at Ola and have spent nearly seven to eight years at the company. Both the executives are known to be close to Ola CEO and founder Bhavish Aggarwal. 

The company spokesperson said that both the executives have delivered well for the company for seven-plus years and the company wishes them well in their future pursuits.

"At Ola, we’ve built a world-class and highly experienced leadership team and hired more than 50 veterans just in the last year from Indian & global firms like Tesla, Apple, LG, among others. India is the future hub for tech and top global talent is eagerly joining new age companies like ours. Ola is the largest EV company in India thanks to the efforts of our world class team. Slokarth and Saurabh have delivered well for the company for 7+ years and we wish them well in their future pursuits.", an Ola spokesperson said.

Besides, two more senior-level executives are also on their way out, the report said. 

SoftBank-backed Ola Electric is preparing for an up to $700-million IPO next year. It has appointed Goldman Sachs and Kotak Mahindra Capital to manage its potential stock market debut early next year. Since it began sales in late 2021, Ola has become India's e-scooter market leader with a 32% share, competing with Ather Energy as well as companies like TVS Motor and Hero Electric. It was valued at $5 billion last year and has raised nearly $800 million from investors since 2019.

In FY24, Ola Electric recorded an operating loss of $136 million on a revenue of $335 million. The loss number of the company has not previously been reported or filed with Indian authorities, reported Reuters quoting sources. 

The e-scooter maker, in June 2022, issued a statement saying it was "on track to surpass $1 billion run rate by end of this year" and "the future forecast looks even stronger." The latest numbers show it is missing its publicly disclosed revenue goal.

Ola sold about 21,400 elecric scooters in March, which is the last month of the fiscal year 2022/23.

Ola Electric, earlier this year, laid out aggressive projections internally, estimating its revenue will quadruple to $1.5 billion 2023-24, a year when it also plans to clock its first profit, Reuters reported last week.

Last week, Ola Electric started bookings for its latest electric scooter, the S1 Air, which is positioned as its most affordable model. In line with this launch, the company has decided to discontinue the sales of the S1 electric scooter. 

For now, Ola Electric will exclusively offer the S1 Air and S1 Pro models in the Indian market. The purchase window for the S1 Air is currently active exclusively for the S1 community and those who have previously reserved the scooter.

The S1 Air is loaded with a 3 kWh battery pack, and comes with an asserted range of 125 km on a single charge. The battery pack requires 5 hours to reach a full charge, according to the company.