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Bhavish Aggarwal, considered one of world’s youngest billionaires, to double fortune on Ola IPO

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Simply two years in the past, Bhavish Aggarwal was dealing with considered one of his largest exams. A video on social media confirmed an Ola Electrical Mobility Ltd. automobile bursting into flames within the Indian metropolis of Pune, elevating doubts about whether or not his wager on the world’s largest e-scooter manufacturing unit would finally repay.
The outspoken founder, who’s drawn parallels to Elon Musk, bounced again.Now, the corporate’s public itemizing is about to cement his place as one of many world’s youngest billionaires.
Aggarwal, 38, will add $1.2 billion to his wealth if his SoftBank Group Corp-backed Ola Electrical lists Friday in Mumbai on the lowest finish of the value band at 72 rupees ($0.86) a share, giving the entrepreneur a web price of $2.3 billion, in response to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Ola Electrical didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon Aggarwal’s web price.
Regardless of being but to show a revenue because it was based in Bengaluru in 2017, Ola Electrical is among the many many electrical vehicle-linked companies taking a look at India’s public market to lift cash, tapping into the craze for different fuels in one of many busiest nations for brand new share choices. The agency made a web lack of 14.7 billion rupees within the monetary yr ended March 2023, its provide doc exhibits.
“Three years in the past once we launched our product, I imagine that’s when the EV story started,” Aggarwal mentioned at a press convention in Mumbai in late July.
Simply two years after its founding and with out having shipped a single scooter, Ola Electrical had turn into a unicorn — a startup with a $1 billion valuation — due to early funding from the likes of SoftBank and Tiger International Administration. At a time when India’s inexperienced infrastructure was in its nascency, Aggarwal aimed to construct the world’s main “city mobility EV firm,” he advised Bloomberg Information in 2021.
However the firm encountered some early stumbles. Shortly after it debuted its electrical two-wheelers in 2021, it noticed a serious setback when Ola scooters had been caught up in a spate of high-profile EV battery fires throughout the nation.
The corporate recalled greater than 1,400 scooters within the wake of the incidents.
Taking up Tesla
A serial entrepreneur, Aggarwal has began firms working in a variety of industries from on-line funds to synthetic intelligence.
Even earlier than the itemizing of his electric-vehicle firm, Aggarwal had joined an unique membership. Bloomberg’s wealth index of the world’s high 500 billionaires lists solely seven underneath the age of 40 the world over, excluding Meta Platforms Inc. founders Mark Zuckerberg and Dustin Moskovitz each of whom turned 40 in Could.
Aggarwal in some ways embodies Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s extra assured and assertive India. By no means one to draw back from providing an opinion, Aggarwal appeared to welcome Tesla Inc.’s choice final month to not put money into India, saying in a submit on X, “that is Tesla’s loss, not India’s.”
He appears to relish competing with world giants equivalent to Musk’s EV enterprise on his house turf. As he put it in an interview with Bloomberg final yr: “Tesla is for the West, Ola is for the remainder.”
After graduating from considered one of India’s high technology-focused faculties, the Indian Institute of Expertise Bombay, Aggarwal began out working at Microsoft Analysis India earlier than founding his first firm in 2010. Ola Cabs, or ANI Applied sciences Pvt, was launched as a ride-hailing app to rival Uber Applied sciences Inc. and shortly expanded past cab companies into on-line funds and food-delivery.
He based his newest enterprise, Krutrim, in 2023, which turned India’s first $1 billion AI startup in January this yr. Via Krutrim, he plans on constructing massive language fashions, information facilities, and finally servers and tremendous computer systems for the AI ecosystem.
All of his companies are in tech-led sectors, creating information that can be utilized by his different companies, mentioned Nitin Pangarkar, affiliate professor of technique and coverage on the Nationwide College of Singapore. “However the consideration given to the companies may very well be a problem.”
He owns stake in Ola Cabs and Krutrim, and has additionally invested undisclosed quantities in tea chain Chaayos and information platform YourStory amongst others as an angel investor, in response to information from Tracxn Applied sciences Ltd.
He’s a vocal supporter of Modi’s purpose to spice up native manufacturing, and infrequently takes to social media in addition to blogs to speak about how his companies can contribute to India’s financial development.
In Could, he ditched Microsoft Azure’s cloud companies for his agency’s and moved to Krutrim cloud after a LinkedIn chatbot used gender impartial pronouns with him. Criticizing Microsoft for “pronoun sickness” on his X account, he mentioned Indians want to maneuver away from western ideas of variety, fairness and inclusion and set their very own tips.
“He’s like India’s Elon Musk,” mentioned Pangarkar. “Brash and abrasive and all that. However that hasn’t stopped Musk from succeeding.”



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