Ola Electric’s successful IPO has propelled founder Bhavish Aggarwal into the billionaire club. His net worth surged by $1.4 billion after shares jumped 16% on their debut, bringing his total wealth to $2.6 billion. Aggarwal now joins the ranks of the world’s youngest billionaires.
Ola Electric, led by Bhavish Aggarwal, is gearing up for its initial public offering (IPO) on August 2, aiming to raise Rs 5,500 crore. The IPO will see an offer for sale (OFS) component of up to 84.94 million shares, bringing the total issue size to Rs 6,145.96 crore. The funds will be used for capacity expansion, research and development, and business expansion. The company’s net loss increased to Rs 1,584.4 crore in FY24, but its operating revenue saw a significant jump to Rs 5,009.8 crore.
Ola Electric Mobility, led by Bhavish Aggarwal, has announced its highly anticipated IPO will take place from August 2nd to August 6th. The IPO will raise up to ₹5,500 crore to fuel expansion of its cell manufacturing plant, boost R&D, and repay debts.
Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal believes India, with its vast pool of IT professionals and data, can lead the world in artificial intelligence (AI) just as China dominated manufacturing. He advocates embracing AI to boost productivity and create new jobs, emphasizing that India’s IT services industry can become even more productive by leveraging AI. Aggarwal also expressed concern about the influence of big tech companies and their promotion of ‘wokeism,’ highlighting his disagreement with mandatory pronoun selection on platforms like LinkedIn.
Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal announced that the EV maker will move its workload from Microsoft Azure to its own Krutrim cloud after LinkedIn deleted several of his posts criticizing neutral pronouns. Aggarwal’s decision stems from his belief that the pronouns issue is a “woke political ideology of entitlement” that does not belong in India. LinkedIn’s actions have led him to conclude that the platform presumes Indians need to have pronouns in their lives and cannot criticize it.
Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO of Ola, ignited a social media debate upon expressing his disapproval of gender pronouns, referring to them as an “illness” and expressing hope that it would not spread to India. His comments, made on X (formerly Twitter), were met with a mix of criticism and support.
