Ola Electric picks Stan Chart veteran Topsy Mathew as corporate finance head ahead of IPO

Topsy Mathew, head of corporate finance and treasury, Ola Electric

SoftBank-backed Ola Electric has roped in Topsy Mathew as the head of corporate finance and treasury, the role that was vacant for more than a year, sources told Moneycontrol.

Mathew served as the managing director at Standard Chartered India Bank before quitting two years ago to set up Golden Mean Capital, an alternative asset management platform.

He will oversee the EV two-wheeler firm’s finance operations and report to Ola’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Arun Kumar GR, Sources said.

“The team under Topsy will look at more hiring and in general as well Ola has been hiring across engineering, sales and finance roles,” a source told Moneycontrol.

Ola Electric did not respond to Moneycontrol’s queries.

Chief of group strategy and corporate finance Amit Anchal, who was overseeing the role, has been elevated as a board member and will be handling larger roles.

The appointment comes at a time when India’s largest EV maker is mulling an initial public offering (IPO) in early 2024.

As reported by Moneycontrol, the firm has also engaged investment banks Kotak Mahindra Capital and Goldman Sachs for the IPO.
In September of 2022, Ola Electric restructured, with a raft of new hires in a bid to centralise and unify operations across verticals.

Industry veteran YS Kim took on an expanded role of leading sales, direct-to-consumer (D2C) and charging network.

Vinay Bhopatkar, who was leading sales, Arvind Appi Raj, director of the environment, health and safety (EHS) team, and director Vijayanand Harish have quit the firm.

The startup also roped in B Ganapathiraman as the director of manufacturing operations and B Sivakumar to head EHS at Ola’s Future factory.

Ola has been focussing on growing its EV business. A massive reorganisation plan was announced in July 2022 and 1,000 employees were sacked when it shut down three businesses -- used Cars, cloud kitchen and grocery delivery, to focus on EVs. It plans to hire around 800 employees for the EV business.

Ola’s market share went up to 30 percent in the March quarter of FY23 and for the full year, too, it was leading with a market share of 22 percent followed by Hero, Okinawa, Ather, TVS and Ampere, a Redseer’s Electric Mobility Report said.