Ankit Bhati is happy to borrow tech where he doesn't need to invent it
Ankit Bhati may be an entrepreneur, but tech is what makes his eyes light up. That is a good thing for Ola, given the number of projects he’s able to bring his focus to at Ola Innovations Lab, where research projects, both for near-term commercial use and longer-term strategic purposes, are being nurtured.
While Bhati refuses to reveal serious details on the strategic research, in fairly generic terms, priorities include data analytics applied to a range of interests. “Peak pricing is obviously a focus area. How do you make it more predictable, make it more palatable, more granular?” he says. Pricing ride-sharing is another point of interest—how do you do it right? Too low and it might attract people who aren’t necessarily going in the same direction, too high and no one might opt for it. “This is really the tricky part of the algorithm.”
(This story appears in the 24 June, 2016 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)