Ola hires former eKart exec Harish Abhichandani as CFO

By Dearton Thomas Hector

  • 17 Aug 2017
Credit: Shah Junaid/VCCircle

Former eKart executive Harish Abhichandani has joined cab-hailing firm Ola as chief financial officer (CFO), his LinkedIn profile shows.

Abhichandani replaces Infosys veteran Rajiv Bansal, who had quit as Ola's CFO in February, within six months of taking up the position. VCCircle was the first to report that Bansal was on his way out from the cab aggregator.

After Bansal's departure, Ola’s head of operations Pallav Singh was acting as the interim CFO.

An Ola spokesperson confirmed Abhichandani's appointment to VCCircle.

Harish Abhichandani
Abhichandani had joined Flipkart’s logistics unit ekart in February last year, his LinkedIn profile shows. Prior to that, he worked with Tata Teleservices and Oman-based Omar Zawawi Establishment.

Ola, which effected some top-level changes in January by bringing in Pepsi India veteran Vishal Kaul as chief operating officer and designating the incumbent COO Pranay Jivrajka as founding partner, has seen some senior-level exits in recent months.

Sundeep Sahni, a high-profile hire who headed its new initiatives, and head of luxury cab service Ola Lux Abhimanyu Rawal, had quit in December 2016.

Last week, ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd-run Ola raised $36 million (Rs 231 crore) from New York-based hedge fund Tekne Capital Management.

In May, Ola raised Rs 670 crore ($104.4 million) in a fresh round of funding from Falcon Edge Capital and Ratan Tata’s RNT Capital Advisers.

In April, it had secured Rs 1,675 crore ($250-260 million) in fresh funding from SIMI Pacific Pte, a SoftBank subsidiary.