India's Ola now travelling to Australia

Bengaluru, January 30: Indian cab aggregator Ola is all set to launch its services in Australia in next few weeks in its first international expansion. The company has started recruiting drivers in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

"We are very excited about launching Ola in Australia and see immense potential for the ride-sharing ecosystem which embraces new technology and innovation," said Bhavish Aggarwal.

Bengaluru-based Ola was set up in 2011 and has grown rapidly as more people bought smartphones. It now claims to have about 125 million users in India, with around one million drivers across more than 110 cities.

The Australian taxi-hailing app industry is dominated by Uber - Ola's biggest rival in India. Ola will also compete in Australia with Taxify, the European firm which set up business in Sydney late last year, and expanded to Melbourne earlier this month.