Just two years ago, Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder of Ola Electric Mobility Ltd., faced a major challenge when a video of one of his company’s electric scooters catching fire in Pune circulated on social media. The incident cast doubt on the viability of Aggarwal’s ambitious plan to establish the world’s largest e-scooter factory. Despite the setback, the 38-year-old entrepreneur has made a remarkable comeback, with Ola Electric’s upcoming public listing poised to solidify his position as one of the world’s youngest billionaires.
Aggarwal is set to see his wealth increase by $1.2 billion when Ola Electric lists on Friday in Mumbai. Even at the lowest end of the price band, 72 rupees ($0.86) per share, his net worth will soar to $2.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The company, which has yet to turn a profit since its inception in 2017, made a net loss of 14.7 billion rupees in the financial year ending March 2023. However, Ola Electric is tapping into the growing demand for electric vehicles in India, where alternative fuels are gaining traction.
At a recent press conference in Mumbai, Aggarwal reflected on the company’s journey, saying, “Three years ago when we launched our product, I believe that’s when the EV story began.” Ola Electric quickly became a unicorn just two years after its founding, thanks to early investments from SoftBank and Tiger Global Management. Despite initial challenges, including a recall of over 1,400 scooters following a series of battery fires, Aggarwal’s vision of creating the world’s leading urban mobility EV company has remained steadfast.
Aggarwal’s entrepreneurial journey began after graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He worked at Microsoft Research India before launching Ola Cabs, a ride-hailing service that quickly expanded into online payments and food delivery. In 2023, he founded Krutrim, India’s first $1 billion AI startup, with plans to build large language models, data centers, and supercomputers for the AI ecosystem.
Aggarwal’s ventures, all tech-driven, generate data that benefits his other businesses, though some experts, like Nitin Pangarkar from the National University of Singapore, caution that managing multiple enterprises could pose challenges. Nonetheless, Aggarwal remains a vocal supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for local manufacturing and is unafraid to express his opinions publicly.
Recently, Aggarwal criticized Microsoft’s use of gender-neutral pronouns in a LinkedIn chatbot, calling it “pronoun illness” and advocating for India to establish its own guidelines on diversity, equity, and inclusion. He subsequently moved his firm’s cloud services from Microsoft Azure to Krutrim Cloud.
Aggarwal’s bold and sometimes abrasive style has drawn comparisons to Elon Musk. “He’s like India’s Elon Musk,” said Pangarkar. “Brash and abrasive and all that. But that hasn’t stopped Musk from succeeding.”
