Taxi aggregator Uber Technologies has started diverting a significant portion of its $1 billion investment in China for India operations. The taxi provider, which agreed to sell its China business to rival Didi Chuxing in August, is planning to expand the team at Bengaluru engineering centre.
Uber, based in San Francisco, U.S., is planning to increase the workforce in Bengaluru from 15 to 50 employees by December this year, Mint reported. In an interview to the publication, Uber India's president Amit Jain said the team which catered to the China operations will now be redirected to the Bengaluru centre.
The redirected operations will help the company in two ways. "One is: we were spending over a billion dollars in China annually. So that stops. We can see a portion of that being invested (in India) as we continue to grow the business in India," Jain was quoted as saying by the publication.
In addition, several other resources earlier dedicated to China would now be channelled to focus on the India business.
After China, India is the second biggest global market for Uber.
Despite fierce competition from rival Ola, the ride-hailing firm has been trying to subsidise every ride it offers to customers in India.
"Customisations that are catered towards the market will continue to happen and that has been the focus of the dedicated India-focused team and if some of these customisations are successful in India, we will take them to some other countries in the world," Jain was quoted as saying by the Mint.
Last month, the value of the merger between Uber China and Didi Chuxing was pegged at $35 billion. As part of the deal, Uber's China investors would receive a 20 percent stake in the new combined entity and China's market dominant Didi Chuxing would invest $1 billion in Uber.
