Ola Electric has issued a strong rebuttal to allegations made by MapMyIndia, which accused the company of misappropriating proprietary data. Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO and Founder of Ola, dismissed the claims as “opportunistic” and strategically timed to coincide with Ola Electric’s upcoming Initial Public Offering (IPO).
During a press briefing at Sankalp, Ola Electric’s flagship event, Aggarwal addressed the controversy directly. “Empty vessels make more noise. In the run-up to our IPO, they made a lot of sound. They were totally opportunistic about it. We sent them a strong response, we wanted to deal with them after the IPO. In that timeline, we have sent them a response; they haven’t responded to that,” said Aggarwal.
Aggarwal further elaborated on the nature of the accusations, pointing out that Ola Electric is not even involved in the mapping business. “They attacked Ola Electric, which is not even into mapping business. There is absolute opportunistic randomness in what they have done. We will get back to them in the right forum at the right time,” he added.
The allegations from MapMyIndia’s parent company, CE Info Systems, surfaced last month, accusing Ola of reverse-engineering a licensed product from a 2021 agreement to copy proprietary data. The lawsuit claims that Ola Maps had illegally copied API and SDK data from one of MapMyIndia’s clients.
In related news, Ola Cabs has recently undergone a rebranding and will now be known as Ola Consumer. The company has also launched a new loyalty program called Ola Coin and reintroduced ride-sharing services as part of its efforts to strengthen its position in the competitive ride-hailing market.
“At Ola Consumer, our aim is to ensure that every consumer has access to the best products and services without barriers of traditional commerce,” Aggarwal emphasized.