Avail Finance has raised $11.5 Mn in a Series B funding round from Alphawave Incubation Fund and Matrix Partners. This investment in Avail Finance has come after a gap of 13 months.
The Fintech lender, Avail Finance was founded in 2017 by Ankush Aggarwal (brother of Ola’s founder – Bhavish Aggarwal) and Tushar Mehndiratta. Avail Finance specializes in underwriting loans to blue-collar workers through a model of partnerships with aggregators such as Ola, Swiggy, Ecom Express, Quess Corp, among others. The company raised $9 million last year from Matrix Partners India.
Avail Finance caters to India’s blue-collared workforce (office boys, cleaning staff, and others), who are currently underserved by organized lending institutions. It provides collateral-free personal loans of up to Rs 20,000 to meet their financial needs. According to the company, there is no interest for a personal loan of Rs 5,000 for a month.
Alphawave Incubation — which is managed by Falcon Edge Capital — infused around Rs 57 crore, while Matrix Partners invested Rs 30.2 crore, regulatory filings showed, valuing the Bengaluru-based company at about Rs 500 crore. Matrix Partners will hold 26.4% in Avail Finance, while Alphawave has picked up 11.5% in the company following the funding.
Backed by the likes of Ola founders Ankit Bhati, Bhavish Aggarwal, Cred founder Kunal Shah, Flipkart’s co-founder Binny Bansal and Mswipe’s founder Manish Patel, Avail Finance has raked in over $37 million since its inception.