Ola Founder Has Public Spat With Kunal Kamra, Shares Drop
NEW DELHI, (REUTERS) – Ola Electric’s shares tumbled 9% on October 7 after a public spat between the founder of India’s biggest e-scooter maker and a comedian revived questions over service at the SoftBank-backed company, whose sales are falling.
Comedian Kunal Kamra on October 6 posted an undated photo to his 2.4 million followers on X which showed dozens of e-scooters gathering dust outside an Ola showroom, triggering a wave of complaints from other users.
Ola’s founder Bhavish Aggarwal responded by saying Kamra should “sit quiet and let us focus on fixing the issues”, adding that the company is expanding its service network fast.
Ola has a 27% market share in India’s e-scooter market.
After a stellar stock market debut in August, shares in Ola have dropped 43% from their all-time high as it faces growing anger on social media over its service, and analysts flag concerns about its market share, which has fallen for five months in a row due to growing competition and service concerns.
HSBC analysts said in a note last month that they visited multiple Ola service stations and most “appeared overwhelmed by the service requests and were struggling to provide adequate service quality”, adding they had a “huge backlog”.
Last month, a 26-year-old man was arrested for allegedly setting fire to an Ola showroom in protest over unsatisfactory servicing, police said.