Ola is going to acquire CEO Bhavish Aggarwal’s brother’s firm Avail finance

• Ola announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire online lending platform Avail Finance.
• Ola had first invested in Avail Finance back in 2019 and presently owns 9% stake in it.
• Ola believes that the acquisition could help the company further enhance their own financial services offering.

Ride hailing giant Ola on Friday announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire online lending platform Avail Finance, which is run by Ola’s founder and chief executive (CEO) Bhavish Aggarwal’s brother Ankush Aggarwal.

The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal as the transaction is still awaiting approval from shareholders. However, a report by Moneycontrol citing sources mentioned that Ola may acquire Avail Finance for $50 million in a share swap deal.

Notably, Ola had first invested in Avail Finance back in 2019 and presently owns 9% stake in it.

Avail Finance was founded in 2016 by Ankush Aggarwal and Tushar Mehndiratta as a financial services and lending platform for blue-collar workers. The company offers savings, insurance, lending and investment solutions under one umbrella. It has over 6 million users.

The company — which has both Ankush and Bhavish Agggarwal as directors — has raised $38.5 million since its inception from investors like Flipkart’s Binny Bansal. CRED’s Kunal Shah, Matrix Partners India and Ola co-founder Ankit Bhati too. Bhavish Aggarwal had also participated in the Series A round of the company in his personal capacity.

Ola believes that the acquisition could help the company further enhance their own financial services offering for underserved segments, including their driver partner ecosystem. By leveraging Avail Finance’s products and capabilities, it wants to expand into a neobanking product, Ola said in a statement.

The ride hailing giant invested ₹800 crore into its financial services business last year.

The development comes as Ola is trying to go public in 2022. The company raised $500 million last year in the pre-initial public offering (IPO) round and has been aggressively expanding its electric mobility business on the side.

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