According to a prepared statement by Ola, Ola currently holds about 9% in Avail Finance and had invested in the company for the first time in 2019. The acquisition will help the cab aggregator further enhance its financial services.
Avail Finance was founded in 2016 by Ankush Agarwal, brother of Ola cofounder Bhavish Agarwal. Both the brothers are the directors of the company. According to Traxon’s data, Avail has raised $38.5 million since its inception and is valued at $87 million. It currently offers loans to the blue-collar workforce, along with offering other financial products in savings, investments and insurance. Matrix Partners of Ola and Avail and Falcon Edge (now Alpha Wave Global) are common investors.
With this acquisition, Ola Financial Services will seek to strengthen its game in the credit underserved segment with the company’s driving partner ecosystem.
Ola will leverage the capabilities of Avail Finance, which will strengthen Ola’s lending business and help mobility ventures to expand into neo-banking products, it said. Ola is looking to expand the scope of its financial services product and is eyeing a non-banking finance company (NBFC) license.
As part of the deal, Avail Finance’s leadership team will join Ola Financial Services
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Earlier, Avail was in talks to acquire neo-banking platform Yellow last year.
“With this expansion, Ola will be able to sell multiple lending products to its large driving partner base; “Providing them a one stop destination for all their financial needs,” the company said in a statement.
Last year, Ola invested around Rs 800 crore in its financial services business and claimed to have 40 million customers for its buy-now-pay-later product, Ola Postpaid. It has also forayed into the vehicle financing business with NBFC partnerships, following the launch of its electric scooters.
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