Major reshuffle in Ola top management; CFO Rajiv Bansal, CMO Raghuvesh Sarup quit

Cab aggregator Ola continues to see top management churn with its CFO Rajiv Bansal and Chief Marketing Officer Raghuvesh Sarup putting in their papers.

Both Bansal and Sarup were roped in about a year back by the SoftBank-backed firm, which is locked in an intense battle for leadership with US-based Uber.

According to sources, Pallav Singh, who is currently Senior Vice President and Head of Ola Money, has been given the additional responsibility as interim CFO.

Sarup’s replacement is yet to be decided, they added. Emailed queries to the company did not elicit a response.

Earlier on Thursday, Ola named Badri Raghavan as its chief data scientist.

The development comes amid Japan’s SoftBank booking an investment loss of 39.28 billion yen (USD 350 million) on its investments in India, including those in Ola and e-commerce company Snapdeal.

Ola has been witnessing a slew of changes in its executive team. Last month, Ola had roped in former PepsiCo executive, Vishal Kaul as its COO. In turn, Pranay Jivrajka—who was also Ola’s first employee—was elevated as Founding Partner.

A former Infosys executive, Bansal had joined Ola last year. He is also in the midst of a controversy as some of the Infosys founders have raised concerns about the severance package offered to him.

Sarup, who also joined Ola in January last year, was previously working as Managing Director of Microsoft India. He has worked across companies like Nokia, Yum! Brands (Pizza Hut) and Procter & Gamble.