Ola’s board has approved the acquisition of Avail Finance, a company championed by founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal’s brother, for $50 million in a share swap agreement, with his sibling Ankush Aggarwal set to manage Ola Financial following the merger.
The merger occurs as the SoftBank-backed firm, which was planning to list on the public markets this year,
The target company, Avail Finance, was launched in 2017 by Bhavish’s brother Ankush Aggarwal and Tushar Mehndiratta and provides lending products to blue-collar workers such as personal loans, salary advances, and savings
Ola has also been investing substantially in its rapid grocery delivery service, Ola Dash, as it looks to expand beyond ride-hailing, which has suffered as a result of the pandemic
Founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal stated at a Reuters Next conference last year that Ola intends to go public in 2022