Lunch with Leon episode 14 - Bhavish Aggarwal

After a bad taxi experience in 2011, Bhavish Aggarwal resolved to do something better. The result was to co-found Ola Cabs in India. 

In 2015, along with co-founder Ankit Bhati, they were the youngest to be included in that year's list of richest Indians.

 Since then, Ola Cabs has expanded to Australia, New Zealand and now London.

Last year the company was valued at £6.5bn and at 35-years-old Bhavish is one of the world’s most successful young entrepreneurs. 

In conversation over Lunch with Leon Daniels he opines that the pandemic will not alter travel in the long term, although the modes will change: “The human need to travel is very deep in us; it’s not going away,” he says.

 “The pandemic will force an acceleration in innovation in mobility,” says Bhavish. “We cannot envisage what it will be like in 10 or 20 years’ time,” before going on to discuss some of the potential.

“There is so much stuff that’s happened in the last 10 years, that hadn’t happened in the previous 50 years. I’m very excited and enthused about the next 10 years.”

He also talks about what sets Ola Cabs apart from its competitors and how one platform (the app) does everything, from buses to taxis, to home delivery.

The next development is Ola Cabs’ own design of electric two-wheelers that are now being launched across the world, and he expands on how software and hardware are being brought together into one solution

There are also messages for young people who are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, and he tells us why “now is the best time to start a business.”