Ola, the ride hailing platform, is acquiring Avail Finance, a neo-bank providing financial services to the blue-collared workforce.
Avail Finance, which was founded by Ankush Aggarwal, brother of Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal, has over 6 million users. While Ola did not disclose details of the transaction, a Moneycontrol report said that the share-swap deal is worth $50 million. According to its website, Avail Finance also provides instant online personal loans, even as it also targets credit-worthy individuals that are currently under-served by formal lending institutions such as banks and non-banking finance companies.
Ola said in a statement that the acquisition is a key step in its broader push into the fintech space as it looks to build a mobility-focused financial services business under Ola Financial Services, which is a subsidiary of its parent ANI Technologies.
“With this acquisition, Ola Financial Services will further strengthen its play in the credit underserved segments that comprise blue-collar workers such as Ola’s driver-partner ecosystem. The deal is subject to shareholder approval,” Ola said.