Ola Parent Infuses INR 786.14 Cr In Financial Services Arm; To Expand Insurance Biz Globally

ANI Technologies, the parent company of Ola, has pumped INR 786.14 Cr in Ola Financial Services (OFS), making it a 100% subsidiary. As per regulatory filings, the ride-hailing platform has received a nod from the registrar of companies (RoC) to invest up to INR 786,64,12,400 in-kind consideration against swap of shares of OFS (aka Ola Money).

ANI Technologies will own 100% of Ola Financial Services through an all-stock deal.

Founded in January 2011 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati, Ola began as a cab-hailing service, which has managed to expand its businesses not only in India but also UK, Australia and New Zealand. With this funding, ANI now owns three pillars apart from the cab-hailing platform — Ola Foods, Ola Electric and Ola Money.

Ola Financial Services or Ola Money, (formerly known as Zipcash Card Services) was launched in 2015. Available within the Ola App, and as well as individually, Ola Money offers P2P payments for 300+ brands all over India, credit cards, mobile recharges, postpaid bill payments and on-ride insurance to Ola users. The startup has sold over 675 Mn policies and claims to be a key part of Ola’s mobility platform.

With the new funds, Ola Money is looking to expand its insurance business internationally in the UK and ANZ markets. The startup will launch custom country-specific policies to support Ola’s mobility business in newer geographies.

OFS claims to be expanding its suite of products by launching new lending offerings in the form of two-wheeler, four-wheeler, and personal loans to offer a comprehensive financial product ecosystem to the customer, as per that filing. It will also launch all bill payments features soon, according to its website.

As ANI Technologies gears up for an IPO, cab-hailing unicorn Ola recently also allotted equity shares worth INR 52 Cr upon ESOP conversion to over 99 former and current employees, Inc42 exclusively reported. The development comes after the startup allotted shares worth INR 91 Cr to its former four executives – Suvonil Chatterjee, Pranay Jivrajka, Pallav Singh, and Nimish Joshi.