Avail Fin raises USD 17.2 mln to fund expansion plans

Bengaluru-based online lending platform Avail Finance today said it raised USD 17.2 million through equity, debt and credit lines.

The amount has been raised from Matrix Partners India as well as marquee investors like Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati (Ola founders), Binny Bansal (Flipkart co-founder and Group CEO), Kunal Shah (Freecharge founder) and Manish Patel (founder and CEO of Mswipe).

The company intends to use the funds to expand its business and also build its loan book.

Founded by Ankush Aggarwal and Tushar Mehndiratta in February last year, Avail Finance focusses on lending to the country's blue-collared workforce.

"This segment is currently underserved by organised lending institutions and we want to create a seamless experience for them," Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Avail Finance told PTI.

"In the last one year, we have given out about 4,000 loans and the loan book is at about Rs 5 crore. We want to grow this to about Rs 100 crore by the end of the fiscal," he said.

He explained that this segment often doesn't have a credit history because of which the blue-collared workforce finds it difficult to secure loans from traditional channels.

He added that the company uses multiple data sources to offer credit ranging between Rs 5,000 and Re 60,000 for a period of up to nine months.

Aggarwal, who is the younger sibling of Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal, said the company uses advanced technology, data sciences and artificial intelligence to power the algorithm of its system.

Avail Finance has previously raised about USD 200,000 from friends and family.