With its core business stagnating, home-grown ride-hailing major Ola has shifted its focus towards financial services, electric mobility and cloud kitchen-led food delivery services to hit the road to profitability.
The Bhavish Agarwal-led firm has been aggressively diversifying in several products or services, including financial services. After multiple rejigs in Ola Electric, the ride-hailing firm is now shifting its focus on creating financial service products to take on incumbents like Paytm, PhonePe and Google Pay in the digital payment space.
To further this cause, the Bengaluru based firm has hived off its financial unit, Ola Financial Services, from its parent ANI Technologies. Ola plans to keep Ola Financial Services independent and raise separate capital through it, said an ET report.
Ola Financial Services offers financial solutions ranging from OlaMoney wallet to post-paid services and micro-insurance for rides taken on the platform.
The ride-hailing firm sees a huge opportunity in creating cutting-edge financial services and products. It aims to tap into mobility spends of over 150 million digital-first consumers on its platform.
Recently, it had roped in financial services veterans Nitin Gupta and Hemant Kaul to lead its financial play.
In the next few months, Ola plans to focus on its credit card and health insurance segments majorly. It has already partnered with Religare and SBI for health insurance and credit card services.
The move will allow Ola to look beyond ride-hailing, which primarily appears to have reached a saturation point in the country.
