Even the odds, Ola Share tells Delhi

For all those fretting over the Delhi government's odd-even car formula to tackle air pollution, cab-hailing company Ola has brought its ride sharing service Ola Share to Delhi NCR.

The service, which was first rolled out in Bangalore in October allows up to three users to share a cab. Ola Share is offering a 50 per cent discount to commuters in the introductory phase.

The Delhi government will implement its odd-even car scheme from January 1, 2016, allowing vehicles with licence plates ending with odd and even numbers to ply on alternate days.

Yesterday, Uber Technologies Inc launched its ride sharing service UberPool in Delhi-NCR, to cash in on the expected surge in demand once the government's order comes into force.

In September this year, Meru Cab Company Pvt Ltd, one of India's oldest radio taxi firms, ventured into the car-pooling space by launching a new service for customers travelling to the same area.

Though there are a number of ride-sharing apps in the market, Meru was the first taxi company to venture into this nascent but highly advocated business.

In the same month, Uber also launched its car sharing service called UberPOOL in India. UberPOOL is modelled on the service that is already active in the US.

Online travel group Ibibo had launched a carpooling app named Ryde in April. Another player in the same space, Hyderabad based Zify Tech Solutions Pvt Ltd, which runs a ride-sharing app, had raised $190,000 (Rs 1.2 crore) in angel funding from two Hyderabad-based investors and Sean O'Sullivan of SOSventures.

Last month, Ola, run by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, completed its Series F funding round by raising $500 million from Scottish investment firm Baillie Gifford and China's Didi Kuaidi, besides some existing investors.

Falcon Edge Capital, Tiger Global, Japanese internet and telecom conglomerate SoftBank Group, and Russian investment firm DST Global were the existing investors that put money in this round.