Ride-hailing company Ola, operated by ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd, has invested in Avail Finance as part of the online lender’s Series A round of funding.
As part of the deal, the two companies will jointly build financial solutions for the cab aggregator’s driver-partners, the Press Trust of India reported, citing a statement by Avail Finance.
Avail Finance, operated by Bengaluru-based Goddard Technical Solutions Pvt. Ltd, didn’t disclose the amount it raised from Ola.
Earlier this month, the startup had said that it raised $9 million (Rs 62.2 crore) in the Series A round led by Matrix Partners.
Avail plans to build customised financial solutions such as micro-savings and micro-insurance products for Ola’s driver-partners.
Avail Finance founder Ankush Aggarwal was cited as saying in the statement that the deal with Ola will help the digital lender expand its offerings to a large, growing base of users. “We already have close to a million registered users through our various offerings and have processed requests of over $50 million,” he said.
Avail Finance was founded by Aggarwal and Tushar Mehndiratta in February 2017. It had raised angel funding of $200,000 from Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal the same year. Avail Finance also provides its services to Ola workers. It also has partnerships with Swiggy, Ecom Express and Quess Corp to provide its services.
Last year, Avail Finance had raised $17.2 million in a round led by Matrix. Ola founders Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, FreeCharge founder Kunal Shah and Mswipe founder Manish Patel had also participated in the round.
