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Ola set to acquire financial services firm Avail Finance

Economic Times  

Ride-hailing firm Ola is set to acquire Avail Finance, a platform that provides financial services and loans to blue-collar workers. The USD 50 million share swap deal will give Avail Finance's founder Ankush Aggarwal, the brother of Ola CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, a stake in Ola's parent entity ANI Technologies. Investors common to both ANI Technologies and Avail Finance, including Alpha Wave Global (formerly Falcon Edge) and Matrix Partners India, are set to get additional stakes in ANI. After the acquisition, Avail Finance's leadership team will join Ola Financial Services. Ankush Aggarwal will also head Ola's lending business, which will be merged with Avail Finance's business. The deal is interesting since both brothers are directors of Goddard Technical Solutions, which operates Avail Finance, making the acquisition a related-party transaction. In addition, shareholder approval is critical since both Ankush and Bhavish Aggarwal are related. Due to this, Bhavish Aggarwal will also have to recuse himself from voting on the transaction. Ola will leverage Avail Finance's capabilities, which will strengthen Ola's lending business and help the mobility venture to expand into neo-banking products. The cab aggregator now holds around 9% in Avail Finance, having first invested in the company in 2019.