IPO-bound Ola is wishing to broaden its financial services business and also planning to receive an NBFC licence via the acquisition route, revealed sources to PTI.
Ola is asserted to be in conversations to buy at least 3 companies to expand its engineering, product, as well as loan management facilities to aid the rapid development in the financial services business, two sources close to the development, told PTI.
The firms being assessed for acquisition are registered non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), which deliver both secured and unsecured loans. Ola will pull the acquisitions to deliver vehicle financing as well as personal loans, said the sources. While the firm did not instantly offer any statements, sources announced Ola has lined up contentious expansion plans for its financial services business.
As per its RoC (Registrar of Companies) filing, Ola had lately capitalized ₹786 crore in its financial services business. Ola already delivers its Buy Now, Pay Later product – Ola Postpaid that is accessible to over 40 million customers and is propelled to rise to 100 million customers in the successive six months.
However, Ola is alternatively looking to earn insurance and insurance broking licences to further strengthen its capacity to extend innovative products like telematics-based pay-per-use motor vehicle insurance, sources declared. Ola has till date sold approximately 700 million policies and the GMV of its insurance business rose over 3x in 2021. It is now launching a Gross Written Premium of over ₹1,000 crore in 2022 and will expand numerous new offerings containing an insurance marketplace for gig economy workers beyond its driver-partners.
Ola, with more than 165 million customers, is one of the biggest consumer internet platforms in the nation and expanding with financial services and insurance to its services is a natural extension.
