BENGALURU: Ride-hailing platform Ola has entered into an agreement to acquire neo bank Avail Finance, which was founded by Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal's brother Ankush Aggarwal and Tushar Mehndiratta in 2017.
Avail finance provides financial services to the blue-collared workforce and has over 6 million users. The deal is subject to shareholder approval, and with this acquisition, Ola Financial Services will further strengthen its play in the credit underserved segments that comprise blue-collar workers.
Ola Financial Services is a 100% subsidiary of Ola. Through this acquisition, Ola will leverage Avail Finance's products that will strengthen the ride-hailing firm's lending business.
"With this expansion, Ola will be able to cross-sell multiple lending products to its large driver-partner base; providing them a one-stop destination for all their financial needs," the firm said in a statement.
Ola recently invested Rs 800 crore in its financial services business. Ola Postpaid, its BNPL offering is available to 40 million customers. The firm said its vehicle financing business is growing rapidly in conjunction with Ola Electric as well as Ola Cars.
Last year, Ola announced its plan to go public in 2022, and also raised $139 million from investors including Edelweiss, Hero Enterprise, and IIFL. In October last year it acquired Pune-based GeoSpoc, a provider of geospatial services.