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"Uber may be a market leader in the US and is expanding aggressively in Asia, but Indian startup\u00A0Olacabs, an Uber-like service that aggregates\u00A0car rentals and point-to-point cab services, is confident of taking on the Western company by focusing on solving local problems.\r\n\r\nBhavish Aggarwal, the co-founder and CEO of Olacabs, explains that as a local company, it has a &amp;quot;strong understanding of the market that is second to none.&amp;quot; He tells TNW:\r\nWhile\u00A0Uber is focusing only on a niche segment, even in such a space, a Western solution\u00A0cannot solve local problems like unplanned roads, traffic snarls and unavailability\u00A0of precise address information -- aspects which are an everyday reality while commuting\u00A0in India.\r\n\r\nWe are building localized solutions at scale, not compromising on quality\u00A0and the end to end experience, for the Indian problems.\r\nTo pit itself against Uber, Olacabs has just raised a\u00A0Series B round of funding from Matrix Partners India and existing investor,\u00A0New York-based Tiger Global Management. Indian media outlet NextBigWhat pegs the funding at $20 million.\r\n\r\nOlacabs is currently in five Indian cities, and the latest funding will go towards its plan to launch in more cities and scale rapidly. Aggarwal tells TNW that Olacabs is also looking to improve its technology -- all of which is aimed at helping its cars reach customers on time and solve problems for drivers. One of the interesting things it's doing is to detect potholes.\r\n\r\nOlacabs says that it has already chalked up more than five million visits on its website. The company also has an\u00A0Uber-like app which allows users to book and track cabs, as well as generate the customer\u2019s fare \u2014 which Olacabs takes a 20 percent cut of \u2014 and act as an in-car device navigation system.\r\n\r\nIn the last financial year, more than two million visits on both its Android and iOS apps were recorded, and Aggarwal says he expects this number to grow by over five times in the current\u00A0year.\r\n\r\nOn the last count, Olacabs had more than 1800 operators with over 6,500 cars across the five\u00A0cities where it is operational.\r\n\r\nHeadline image via Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images\r\n\r\nDisclosure: This article contains an affiliate link. While we only ever write about products we think deserve to be on the pages of our site, The Next Web may earn a small commission if you click through and buy the product in question. For more information, please see our\u00A0Terms of Service."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/in/2013/11/14/indias-olacabs-takes-uber-focusing-local-problems-seeks-expand-cities/>