Bangalore-based Ola Cabs is doing all that it can to battle Uber in a highly-competitive Indian market— be it slashing of fares, territorial expansion with operations in 200 cities, investment from India Inc stalwart and hiring of high-profile corporate executives.
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A day after Uber announced a $50 million investment in Hyderabad to set up a facility which will be the biggest outside its headquarters in the US, its local rival Ola announced the appointment of Arun Sarin, Former CEO of Vodafone Group on its Board as an Independent Director. Sarin will contribute in an advisory role to Ola’s overall business strategy that will further drive growth and leadership in the market.

Similarly last week when Uber decided to simultaneously expand into seven new tier-two cities to take it to 18 locations across India, its second largest market behind only the US, Ola announced that Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of the holding company of India’s Tata conglomerate, has bought a stake in the company in his individual capacity. Tata’s investments have not been big, but are considered valuable for startups because of the validation and mentorship these endorsements bring.

“This is a huge endorsement from one of the most respected business leaders of our times and reflects Ola’s commitment towards the future of mobility in India. We look forward to learning from Tata’s experience that will help us build a world class organization from India,” said Ola CEO and co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal.

Meanwhile, Sarin brings with him over 30 years of global management experience and was also the driving force behind Vodafone’s expansion into emerging markets like, India, Turkey and Africa.

“Arun brings a global perspective and a strong understanding of emerging markets like India. His experience in management and in growing large companies is invaluable to Ola,” said Aggarwal in a statement.

Earlier this year, Ola which is backed by Japan’s Softbank, bought TaxiForSure for $200 million in one of India’s biggest e-commerce deals. Last month it integrated the latter’s hatchbacks on its app too in order to make more vehicles available to consumers. The company is targetting 20 million customers by the year end.

And while we are on the topic of battles, let’s not forget the Twitter slugfest that refuses to die down.A few weeks ago, Uber and Ola got into a war of words, which got escalated just yesterday after a brief hiatus.