Ola Financial Services secures Rs 205 cr in Series A led by Matrix Partners

Six months after being hived off its parent company ANI Technologies, Ola Financial Services has raised Rs 205.54 crore ($27 million at current exchange rates) in a Series A round of funding led by Matrix Partners India.

Venture capital firm Matrix is an early backer of the Bengaluru-based company’s cab aggregator arm Ola and its other business verticals including Ola Electric. 

Other investors in the round include Falcon Edge Capital, Gemini Investments, which is the personal investment vehicle of Yuri Milner’s DST Global and former Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin’s family office. The round was completed in January 2020 and the company issued 2.46 lakh preference shares at a subscription price of Rs 8330.90.

In December last year, Ola Financial Services also allotted 1.60 lakh stock options at a face value of Rs 10 per share as part of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) 2019. 

As part of the funding, managing director at Matrix Partners India Vikram Vaidyanathan will join the board of the company, according to regulatory filings. 

The development was first reported by The Economic Times, which also said that CEO of Ola Financial Services, Nitin Gupta, has resigned from his position after over two years at the company. Gupta has been replaced by the company CFO, Harish Abhichandani, according to an internal email reportedly addressed to employees by Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO of Ola.

The company did not respond to specific queries from TechCircle on the corporate movements.

OlaMoney, operated by Ola Financial Services,  is a platform that provides meal vouchers, utility payments, digital wallet and corporate insurance agent as per rules set by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).

ANI’s electric mobility vertical, Ola Electric, was hived off in April 2018. The EV unit has raised $287 million since January 2019 from investors including Softbank and Tiger Global Management as well as strategic investors such as Kia Motors and HeroMoto Corp chairman Pawan Munjal’s family trust. 

Ride-hailing platform Ola recently laid-off 1400 employees citing 95% dip in revenues due to the national lockdown enforced in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic.