Ola Opens Up API for Mobile Apps, Individual Developers

Taxi aggregator Ola Saturday announced the public release of its API, allowing major mobile apps as well as individual developers to integrate the company's offering with their platforms.

"The public release of our API to developers is a giant leap in collaborative technology. With this step, we would open up access to many more millions of users from our partners, offering them a seamless mobility experience," Ola CTO and co-founder Ankit Bhati said in a statement.

Ola targets an overall reach of over 100 million from its API (application program interface) partners over the next two years, he said.

"Many more leading mobile apps and technology brands are already working on integrating Ola's API, extending a first of its kind experience to their users," he said. The APIs are also expected to evolve rapidly, allowing for integrations across Ola Money and newer categories and use cases available on the Ola app, Bhati said.

Leading brands like Samsung, MakeMyTrip, InMobi, and Helpchat have integrated Ola's API as part of Ola's first API Hackathon, which sees participation from India's finest developers, he said.

"This could include integrations across ride availability, estimation, booking and tracking, allowing partners to complete their experience for their users with Ola," Bhati said.

This is a huge step for Ola to go beyond the app in reaching out to more users from partner brands, giving them the benefit of a seamless experience in terms of personal transportation, he added.