Uber CEO, Travis Kalanick; Part of Government’s ‘Start-up India’

The co-founder and chief executive officer of taxi-hailing service Uber Inc., Travis Kalanick is now taking initiative in the Government's ‘Start-up India’ event. Being a part of the event, Travis is to address students of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and share his own success story.

Along with Kalanick, over 40 CEOs and start-up founders are looking forward to the event. SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son is also going to share the stage with Kalanick at IIT-B. The government’s ‘Start-up India’ event scheduled for 16 January.

Uber is also partnering with ‘Invest India’, an initiative under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, and has already launched ‘UberExchnage’, a start-up mentorship programme. The company will be investing $1 billion to build its India business.

Kalanick will be addressing the students at IIT-B on January 19. At IIT-Bombay, Kalanick is to address more than 2,500 students, start-up enthusiasts and local entrepreneurs. He will be speaking on “what it takes to build the world’s fastest-growing start-up” and is going to discuss topics such as how to build a business, and will be sharing some of his experiences from his journey.

The company has had its up’s and down’s and had a bad start in the country after one of its drivers was arrested for raping a woman passenger in December 2014. The company is also under regulatory glare for alleged predatory pricing and business practices in many other countries.

Following these developments, the company has been investing heavily in safety measures in all markets, including here, Uber India president Amit Jain had said earlier. Uber India has a driver base of over 1.5 lakh and is growing at about 40% every month. The company is up against Ola, the country’s top taxi-aggregator.